


Accidentally in Love

by loisselina (LoisSelina)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Child Emma Swan, Daddy Charming, David also eventually understands, David and Mary are 22, Emma meets her dad for the first time, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, George is David's uncle and an absolute dick, Incest, James and Ruth are alive as always, Leopold was an abusive dickhead, Multi, Parent Prince Charming | David Nolan, Parent Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Protective Parent Prince Charming | David Nolan, Robert was an alcoholic and he tried but also David has dad issues still, SO, Sexual Abuse, and, and she tried so so hard for Emma, because no they're fine they didnt die, but also again please just don't hate Mary I promise it'll make sense, not a Mary hate place, protective parent snow white| Mary Margaret Blanchard, she had her reasons for everything, step mom Regina, there's a lot of, this is not a Mary hate fic at all, those are just warnings as they may be talked about, toddler Emma Swan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-06-07 01:59:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoisSelina/pseuds/loisselina
Summary: David and Mary had a one night stand when they were 18, 4 years later David bumps into Mary and finds out that he has a 3 year old daughter. They struggle with deciding on custody for Emma and both of their lives changing entirely as they go from strangers to friends... they don't want to confuse their daughter but certain feelings start to stir as they spend more time together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've said this in the tags a lot but this is not a Mary hate fic, please give it time to be explained, even David quickly understands even if he's not happy about it. 
> 
> Also the title is from a song called Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows.... yes it's from the Shrek soundtrack... but I swear it's an awesome song.

David grinned as he stood in the empty apartment which he had just signed the papers for, it was officially his, and he couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. It was so much bigger and more modern than the one he had been renting in college, both he and his best friend had studied the same course, and when they had just graduated they both got jobs on the same force. And he finally allowed himself to use the money he had inherited from his father, he had spent his teenage years working hard, he looked around his apartment with pride knowing that he was finally starting to achieve his dream.

His phone started to ring and the name on it made him start for a moment but he shook his head and just answered it. “Hey mom, I just signed the papers, it’s officially mine.” He chuckled. “Mom I love your cooking, but I’m an adult, I’m living closer to you now but I need my own place. I’ll see you tomorrow, mom, I need to sort out furniture for here and I’ll pick up my stuff from home. Love you, bye.”

He shook his head, his mother was still protective despite him being an adult, he knew he wouldn’t be like that when he was a parent, in many many years time.

He glanced at his watch and was glad to see how early it was, there was plenty of time to do everything he needed to do.

David spent the day going around the large town he was now part of, ordering furniture to be delivered and buying different items he forgot he even needed. By the early afternoon the furniture was all delivered and he had the bare bones of his apartment sorted out. He collapsed on his new couch and took out his phone, he shot a quick text to his friend before pulling a clean plaid shirt heading out to grab dinner, content with his life just as it was.

He pulled out his phone again and dialled Killian’s number. “Hey Rogers, I’m heading to the diner now, I just need to stop at the store first… Yeah, see you in a few.”

 

  


* * *

 

 

Mary beamed as she walked into the playground, she took off the blazer she had been wearing for her final interview, she had just gotten a job she couldn’t believe her luck, she had just graduated from college and was officially going to be the fourth grade teacher at Storybrooke Elementary. She had worked so hard to juggle her life between college, work experience, and her life, and now she finally had the job she had been working so hard to get.

“Mommy!”

Mary heard the loud shout and looked around, she saw a tiny girl in shorts and a t-shirt barrelling towards her, her smile widened and she crouched down. Her little girl threw herself into her arms and she wrapped her arms around her hugging her close to her chest. “Hello baby!”  She kissed her forehead. “I’ve missed you so much! Did you have a lot of fun? Did you have a good day?”

“Mommy I was really, really, really good mommy!” Emma told her excitedly and hugging her tightly.

Mary stood up with Emma in her arms, she was finally starting to grow but she was still easily the smallest in her playschool, to Mary she was still the tiny baby in the NICU clinging onto her finger. She kissed her face again. “I missed you my little monkey.”

“Hey, Mary!”

Mary’s head turned and she looked at Emma’s preschool teacher, Ashley. “How did she do?” Mary tried not to wince too much.

Ashley smiled, she remembered how reserved and nervous both Emma and Mary were when Emma joined, she knew that Mary thought that she would be judged for being so young, but Ashley had been through the same. She had tried her best to help them and in doing so she had become friends with them. “Emma got a gold star today.” She told her with pride. “And absolutely no timeouts.”

“What!” Mary said ecstatically and squeezed her little girl making her giggle. “You didn’t get any timeouts, I am so, so proud of you!”

“Are you happy with me mommy?”

“I am so, so, happy with you! You’ve been so good pumpkin.” Mary knew that Emma always tried her best but behaviour wasn’t always her strong suit. “I think that deserves a special treat and how about we go out for our dinner tonight?”

“Yeah!”

Ashley smiled at the two of them. “How’d your interview go?” She asked quietly. “They better have hired you if not then they’re big… they’re silly.” Her eyes flickered Emma as she tried not to call them idiots.

Mary laughed. “They’re… pretty smart… I start in September!”

“Oh my god!” Ashley squealed. “Mary that’s amazing! You totally deserve this, you’ve worked so hard, I’m so proud of you.”

Mary smiled and quickly hugged her. “Thanks Ash.”

“What did you do mommy?” Emma asked intent to be kept in the loop.

“Mommy got a job, sweetie, I’m going to be a teacher.”

“A teacher for me?”

“No sweetie, a bit bigger than you, nine and ten like Rolo.” Mary explained gently.

“Oh…” Emma’s face fell but it immediately perked up. “When I’m a little bit bigger then mommy.”

“Sure, Ducky.” Mary giggled and kissed the top of her white blonde curls again.

“Well, you need to see if your stepmom can babysit and we are so going out on the town to celebrate, a girls night, we all need one.” Ashley promised. She gently stroked Emma’s cheek. “I’ll see you next week sweetie, we’re going to be doing lots of summer things out in the sun, so bring your sun cream and put loads on.” She handed Emma’s backpack to Mary. “There’s a letter in there about a field trip and some of our activity mornings, we’re always looking for volunteers.” She hinted batting her eyelids for comedic effect.

“I’ll take a look at it.” She laughed back. “Say bye bye to Ashley honey.”

“Bye Ash!” Emma said happily waving as her mom walked away. “Food now mommy?”

Mary tickled Emma’s sides. “You’re always hungry, my little love bug, you decide on what you want to eat and we’ll decide where we’re going, we just need to go to the store first, you’ve gotten all your stars on your chart so you get to choose a little toy.” She smiled as Emma cheered and decided to get herself a little treat too.

  
  


* * *

  


David was still getting used to being back in the large town instead of being in a city, one of the things he was having to get used to was stores having early closing times, bar the odd few late night ones so he was rushing to get all the things. His mom had moved back to Storybrooke when he had just started college, he took time off to help her move to her farm and settle in, but overall he had only spent a few months in the town in the past four years, most of that time he spent on his mom’s farm so he was still getting his orientation.  
Now that he had a new apartment and cooking utensils and kitchen equipment he suddenly remembered that he would be needing to buy food. He walked around the store collecting what he would need for the next few days. In the process he found himself turned around and in the kids aisle.

  
  


* * *

  


“Okay honey, you get to pick any of these, what do you want?” Mary asked crouching down beside Emma with her basket of shopping. “There’s kitties, bunnies, unicorns, monkeys, doggies, balls, Duplo building blocks-”

“- A doggie mommy!” Emma said with urgency.

Mary smiled gently, lately Emma had been obsessed with dogs, she figured it was because someone else at preschool had got a dog, plus Emma loved all animals anyway, but their apartment was much too small for one. Mary felt bad but she knew they just couldn’t at the moment. “Okay sweetie, there’s a few different ones, you take a look at them while mommy stands up okay?” She watched Emma nod before standing up, a little to her left there were stickers she knew they needed more for Emma’s sticker chart at home after Emma had decided to raid the rest the other day, just picking these made her excited to start being able to have her own class and put them in the kids books alongside her marking. She kept an eye on Emma as she started to put a few into her basket along with a new pack of crayons for Emma and pack of pens for herself.

Emma smiled as she finally settled upon a chocolate brown labrador puppy, she cuddled it close to chest as she stood up, she smiled down at her new toy as she walked over to her mom, bumping into someone as she did. She tore her eyes away from her toy and looked all the way up at the tall man towering over her she had just bumped into. The only thing that she could think was how tall he was and that he had a plaid shirt like the ones she often wore. Suddenly her mom was at her side and the man was suddenly not so scary. She reached her hand up and her mom immediately took hold of it and she cuddled into her side.   
“Who’s that mommy?”

Mary bit her lip to stop herself from laughing, Emma was pretty shy with everyone, but she couldn’t be completely shy, she was simply too inquisitive to actually be shy. “This is one of my old friends from when I was little, Emmy, I used to live in this town. His name is Hank.”

“Oh.” Emma said quietly, her curiosity was settled, and now she decided instead to cuddle against her mommy’s leg waiting for her to finish talking.

Mary managed to steer the conversation to an end. “I’m sorry it’s time for Emma and I to go have our dinner, isn’t it Ducky? It was nice catching up Hank.” She smiled politely and led Emma away, picking her up when she wanted to be held, kissing her blonde curls as Emma cuddled to her . “Mama just needs to pay for all of these and then we’ll go have some food, we need to pay for puppy too Emma, then what are we going to have for dinner?”

“Erm… Pizza Mama!” She cheered.

Mary laughed. “How come I’m not surprised? I like the sound of pizza too.” She admitted joining the queue.

  
  


* * *

 

 

 

Mary held onto Emma’s hand as she walked down the street with grocery bags in her other arm. “I think tomorrow we’ll have to have an art day.” Mary told her knowing that her daughter enjoyed that. “And we can make some yummy cupcakes.”

“Yeah! I love cupcakes. Mommy I love you too.”

Mary’s heart sang. “I love you too Emma, more than the moon and all of the stars in the sky.” She nuzzled her face against her daughter’s. “What did you do in preschool today?”

“Mommy, a bumblebee!” Emma shouted urgently, she spotted the bumblebee on the pavement and knew that her mom had to move to save the bee.

Mary knew that voice, and quickly took a step to the right, while keeping ahold of her toddlers hand, so she wouldn’t step on the bee. But by doing so she bumped into a man, nearly

“Oh, I’m sorry ma’am-” David stopped talking. His stomach was in his mouth. And his blood pounded in his ears. He knew that face, a memory from when he was eighteen played in his mind, blurred by time and alcohol. “M- Mary?” His eyebrows shot up as he looked at her in shock. “Mary Margaret, is that you?”

Mary took in a shaky breath, subconsciously pulling Emma closer to her, but a smile formed on her face anyway. “David.” She said quietly, suddenly she felt like a teenager again, not the mature adult she had quickly turned into. “You’re here-?” She was speaking as though she was in shock and by the looks of it he was shocked to see her there too.

“I, I moved back here, recently. I thought you were moving halfway across the country at college? The last time I saw you you were off.”

“I decided to stay close to home.” Mary was getting over her shock as she felt her daughter tugging at her leg, she knew Emma was nervous just as she had been when Mary had been talking to Hank, but now Mary was starting to feel just as nervous. She was struggling to think or even breathe.

“Mommy.” Emma whined starting to feel both hungry and tired. “Mommy, me an’ doggie are hungry.”

He hadn’t noticed the tiny little girl David looked down at the blonde curls of the toddler clinging to Mary’s leg, and did the mental arithmetic, he swallowed deeply. “Is… Is she mine?”

“David-.” Mary’s voice was barely above a whisper. She tugged Emma closer to her, scared about losing her, and wanting to keep her from hearing the oncoming storm.

“Mary.” David’s voice was stern but as he asked his question his voice cracked. “Mary. Is. She. Mine?”

Mary took a shaky deep breath in. “Yes.”

  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mary and David talk, and Emma faces great change.

“What the f-”

“Hey!” She snapped quickly. “I… I know and I….” She had no idea what to say. “But you need to calm down around.” Her eyes flickered to indicate Emma.

“I need to-?!” He started to shout but looked down at Mary’s little girl…  _ his  _ little girl, Jesus, he had a  _ kid _ . “You’re sure that she’s mine?” He said quietly as he felt a certain little ones pair of eyes on him. 

Mary’s eyes turned into slits, her nostrils flared, and anger practically radiated off of her, even David looked like he wanted to take steps back but he stood his ground. “ _Look at her._ ” She hissed making sure that Emma couldn’t hear or even see her. “ _She_ is _your_ _double_.”

David looked down at her properly for the first time, examining her as though she was a particularly hard puzzle, taking her all in. Her blonde hair was messy from the day and curls had sprung out of place, he thought of the framed pictures of himself and his twin on his mother’s mantle, they were doubles just twenty years apart. Her skin wasn’t pale in the sun like Mary’s, but tanned as though as soon as the sun caught sight of it it had changed, just like his did. There were scabs on her knees, food on her clothes from her snack or her lunch, which made him smile. She was clearly Mary’s double, and everything about her looked as though she was much too young to be his, but there was something about her… she was just  _ his _ , he could tell. 

“I didn’t sleep with anyone else around that time.” She said quietly and viciously.

David looked up at Mary and spoke softly. “I know. I know, I’m, I’m just in…” He trailed off but he knew she saw what he meant, he had just found out that he was a father, and was in shock and rightly angry about being kept in the dark. “I want to be part-.”

“-Who are you?” Emma’s voice shocked both David and Mary, as though they had both forgotten about her even being there, but it was because David realised his kid was talking to him for the first time. It shocked Mary the most as Emma never spoke to strangers, she was even shy with Mary’s friends, but here she was just asking David a question she normally asked Mary. 

David crouched down in front of Emma and gave her a warm smile. “My name’s David, I’m your mommy’s old friend, I’ve not seen her for a while though.”

“Oh.” Emma kept leant against her mom but she looked up the sandy haired man, his eyes were blue like the colour of the ceiling at her home, and he looked kind like her mommy did when she looked at her. “I got a gold star so I got a special prize.”

David’s smiled turned to one of awe of this baby, this toddler, the child who was his daughter. “Wow, well done, kid.” It struck him that he didn’t even know his daughter’s name or birthday, or anything else. “Was your puppy toy your prize?” He watched her nod her head. “Does it have a name?”

Emma looked down at the toy in her arms for a second before looking up at David. “Emma.” She said twisting as she stoof there, shyly. 

“That’s a good name for the teddy, Emma.”

“Nuh uh, he’s called Puppy, my name is Emma.” She told him.

“Ah, well that’s a very, very pretty name. It’s very nice to meet you, and Puppy.” He watched her smile proudly at him remembering her toy’s name. 

“Mommy, I’m hungry.” Emma looked up at her mom and away from the man as she whined a little, she felt as though if she didn’t eat soon she’d explode.

“We’ll go eat in a minute, honey.” She watched David carefully, still surprised that Emma had been talking to him so much, she had a feeling about what David was about to say. And a sudden and almost overwhelming fear that he was going to try and take her baby from her.

David stood up. “I want to be part of her life.” He was surprised even as he was saying it but it was the truth, he was so confused and in shock, but this was his kid. He kept looking down at her but eventually looked up at Mary giving her a look which would later be described as his cop look. “We need to talk,” he knew just as she did that they shouldn’t have this talk on the street or in front of Emma, “I want to be part of her life, and I deserve an explanation.”

Mary felt a stab of guilt plunge into her stomach. “Give me your number, I’ll text you my address, you can come over and talk once Emma’s asleep.”

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


David listened to the elevator ding as he reached the penthouse apartment in the block in Storybrooke town centre, it was a fairly nice place but he also remembered the big house he had grown up it with all of the outdoors to play in and explore, Emma didn’t have that. He thought about the little garden attached to his own new apartment, and the spare room, and his mother’s nearby farm. He shook his head realising he was getting ahead of himself.

David had just finished up his dinner with Ian when he had gotten Mary’s text. It had killed him not to tell his friend about it, and he knew his friend could see he was distracted even teasing him about a girl text him, but David didn’t say a word he just wanted to have some idea on what the hell was going on first. 

He walked out of the elevator and knocked on Mary’s green and slightly chipped door. Within a minute it swung open. Mary had changed out of the smart outfit she had on earlier and was in a pair of sweats and a band tshirt, her hair had curled from the day just as Emma’s had when he saw her earlier. “Hey.” He said somewhat lamely.

Mary suddenly felt way underdressed. “Emma managed to get pizza sauce all over me without getting any on herself.” She stood aside so he could walk in while he gave a half hearted chuckle. 

David looked at the large open plan apartment, it reminded him a little of his old one in the city, just with some older exposed beams, handmade pictures presumably by Emma, and toys pretty much everywhere. He was directed to the kitchen table by Mary who went to make them some coffee. There was a pile of photo albums in front of where Mary had clearly been sitting. On the tables a stray sippy cup had been left on top of some college textbooks, all of the books were something to do with education. He turned his head to look at some of the framed photos on the walls and bookcase, he quickly saw a big framed one of Mary in a graduation hood and gown, with Emma in her arms grinning at the camera. He cleared his throat. “So you studied education?” 

Mary walked over with mugs of coffee on a tray along with sugar and milk. “Yeah,” she smiled tightly, “I just got a job today at the elementary school.” 

David smiled easily as he dumped in plenty of sugar and stirred in milk. “Congratulations.” 

“And, and you, did you do what you wanted? Something to do with the law?” Mary asked frowning as she tried to remember.

“Yeah, I start at Storybrooke Police station in a couple of weeks, it’s why I decided to move here, I didn’t like stalk you, I swear. Until then I have nothing but time.”

They both sat in tense silence drinking their coffees. David swallowed deeply before looking across the dining table at Mary. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice broke. “I would have been there, I would have stuck with you through all of this, I missed it. I missed it all.” 

Mary looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I tried, I tried so, so hard to find you. Do you remember that night at the party?” 

“Of course I do.” He said straight away, he was pretty sure he did at least, they had been drinking a fair bit but he had enjoyed talking to Mary. “It was someone’s house party, the end of school one, everyone had been drinking a lot, I didn’t really want to be there but I knew my brother would have forced me if he had been… anyway I went up to one of the room and out onto the patio for some air, then you came out. You had been in some of my classes at Greendale you were one of the oldest in the class, one of the more popular people, I had never really talked to you before that.” 

“We talked for hours.” she smiled fondly at the memory but her face became slightly firmer. “You told me your mom and twin were in comas, and you were with your uncle George Spencer but he was an abusive dick, and I told you things I had only ever told a few, things about my… my father.” 

“He wasn’t like a father.” David interjected fiercely. “Any good father that is.” 

“I know.” She smiled sadly at him before looking down at the dregs of her coffee. “I found out I was pregnant when I was eight weeks along, I just thought that I had been ill, I knew you wouldn’t be like mine but…” She placed her hand on her stomach, muscle memory, and looked distant. “I tried to look for you everywhere, I rang every college with anything to do with becoming a policeman, none of them knew a thing about David Spencer.”

“It’s Nolan.” He had never thought to say his last name, he figured that she knew though he wasn’t sure how, if he had just told her it she might have found him and he could have been there in his daughter’s life. “I took my mother’s name once my father left.”

“I thought about ringing George Spencer and getting hold of you through him, I know that my father and he had business dealings, but then I remember how abusive he was to you… I couldn’t chance losing my baby that way, especially to someone like him, you have to understand that David.” 

David wanted to protest but he knew that she had a point and that George had had the power to do that. But George no longer had that power. “Did you see George in the news?” 

Mary shook her head but bit her lip. “Only last year in the news. I swear, when he was originally caught I didn’t even look at the news for about two months, probably even more.”

David frowned in thought. “You would have still been pregnant then, I would have missed most of it, but I could have been there, I could have helped. My, my daughter would know who I am, I would be her daddy not your ‘old friend’.”

Mary shook her head slowly. She picked up the top photo album, opened the first page, and spread the album open between them. Inside were four scans, her 12 and 20 week scans, and two sets of the 4D ultrasounds. She let him look at them for a moment, and saw tears blossom in his eyes, before she spoke again. “This is why I didn’t take notice of the news.” She turned the page. 

“Fuck.” David whispered. The next set of photos showed a baby who looked too small to actually exist. She had a tiny tube going up her nose, and other tubes seemed to be around though he had no idea what for, he supposed that Mary could name every one of them and all of the mechanical devices monitoring her.

“She was two pound four ounces,” Mary said softly as though she could hear the beeping of the machines in the NICU. “Born at thirty weeks, ten weeks early. She was so tiny... we were in the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit, for two months before we were allowed to come home, I had bought this place when I was pregnant, it was only when Emma came home with me that it really felt like a home.”    
She flicked slowly through the book until she found the one of her, Emma, Regina, Robin, Henry, and Roland on Emma’s first night home. She smiled fondly at the picture of her little family, Emma still looked tiny in Mary’s arms but she had grown a lot compared to the first photograph.  

“Your mother, erm, stepmom right?” He frowned trying to remember.

Mary frowned, they had talked for hours that night, but it was nearly half a decade earlier and he had remembered so much. A smile appeared back on her face. “Yeah.” 

“When was she born?” He asked quietly.

“October 23rd, we just about made it back home for Christmas.” She saw his smile widen at that and watched him flick through the first photo album before opening the second of the many. “I can make copies of all of these tomorrow while Emma’s preschool, if you like?” She offered and he nodded eagerly even before she had finished the sentence. 

“I realise now why you didn’t see the original news… I can’t imagine how scary all of this…” He trailed off shaking his head. “You saw George get an extended sentence for all his under-the-table deals, right?” He watched her nod. “I’m guessing you didn’t see why he had been put in there in the first place… My mom and my brother, James, were in medically induced comas, George had paid doctors and medical staff to keep them in induced comas and to fake their test results, . He had planned on killing them and then myself, over money.” He shook his head as though he simply couldn’t comprehend why money was so important to people.

Mary gasped. “David that’s terrible, I’m so so sorry, are they okay now?”

“They’re good, James is away at college, but my mom’s in town, she bought a farm on the outskirts of Storybrooke with her partner, she’s part of the reason I bought an apartment here yesterday.” He told her honestly. “Mary, I can’t walk out of this apartment and forget about Emma, I’m her father and I want to be part of her life, it’s not fair on me or Emma to deny us of that.” He spoke gently, while maintaining eye contact, he was prepared to meet resistance. “I can get a lawyer, if I need one, but I really don’t want it to come to that.” 

Mary had been terrified since the moment she had taken the pregnancy test that she would have her baby taken from her, she used to have nightmares about it, over time the fear had faded some. She had a good job, a home, a support system, and an unbreakable bond with Emma, anyone could see she was a suitable parent. But she suddenly had that terrifying fear return. She looked across at him and saw he shared some of her fear, but his was that he would never get to know Emma at all. “I know.” Her voice broke slightly…

“Mama!” 

Mary’s head shot up at the call and she saw that Emma was already halfway down the stairs with her blanket. She stood up and walked to the stairs, scooping her into her arms, she brought her close to her chest and kissed her head. “What are you doing awake sweetie?” She walked back to the table with Emma’s in her arms, her little girl’s arms wrapped around her neck, it was like she was trying to bury herself into Mary’s chest, it reminded her of what she used to do when she was a baby. Mary sat back down and started to rock Emma. “Are you feeling poorly? No? Did you have a bad dream?” This time she felt her daughter’s head nod against her. “Aw I’m sorry baby, you’re okay now, mommy’s here. Everything’s going to be okay.”    
She kissed the top of her now very messy curls and happened to glance across at David. She stifled a laugh at his face, he was looking as though something was seriously wrong with Emma, she was half surprised that he wasn’t calling an ambulance just in case… though truth be told she had probably looked like that countless times. “She’ll be okay.” She assured him, giving him a smile as she rocked Emma.

“Why’re you here?” Emma rubbed her eyes with her fist.

“I came here to talk to your mommy, I’m sorry you had a bad dream.” David said calmly.

Emma shrugged her shoulders in answer to the dream. “Why?” 

Mary noticed David looking at her, lost about what to say, she realised that he was definitely and constantly making sure that it was on Mary’s terms. “Because mommy and David needed to talk about something for grown ups.”

“Why?”

Mary sighed gently, Emma had been asking ‘why’ over and over again a lot recently, sometimes it was because she didn’t understand, but often it was because she just found it fun. 

“Your mommy was showing me the pictures of you in your photo albums.” David smiled lovingly at his little girl. “Like this one,” he smiled at one of eighteen month old Emma playing peek-a-boo with a white blanket identical to the one in Emma’s arms currently, the one throughout the album. “I like your blanket.”

“It says Emma.” She told him holding up the blanket, though he still couldn’t see her name due to how she was holding it.

“I see that, that’s a very pretty blanket, it looks very special.”

“Mama made it for me when I was in her tummy.”

David smiled at Emma then at Mary and back. “Y’know my mommy knitted me one like yours, but with different coloured squares, before I was born.”

Emma beamed, somewhat sleepily, with pride.

“Emma, David is going to meet you from pre-school with me tomorrow, then we’re all going to play together.” Mary cuddled Emma closer but she looked at David, hoping it was alright as they hadn’t discussed it beforehand, but David was just beaming as though she had just given him the best gift around. She felt the guilt stab through her again.

“Why?” Emma frowned in confusion. 

Mary sighed gently. She turned Emma on her lap so that she was facing her. It would all come out sooner or later. She cupped Emma’s face gently. “Baby, do you remember learning all about families at your school?” Emma nodded. “Good girl. And you remember how there’s lots of different types? Some have a mommy and a daddy, some have two mommies, some have two daddies, some have just a daddy-”

“I have just you mommy.” Emma remembered with a smile.

“Well that’s… you had just me for a very long time, but that’s because I didn’t know where your daddy was, but now I’ve found him... David’s your daddy. Do you understand sweetheart?”

Emma frowned looking at her mother, then twisted to look at David who smiled gently at her, she quickly turned back and look at her mom. Her bottom lip started to quiver. She shook her head no. “Just want you.” She mumbled quietly. She buried her head against her mother. 

“Emma.” Mary said gently full of love. “Emma, it’s okay, I know that this is new and it’s going to be a little bit hard for all of us, but that’s okay. But me and David, your daddy, love you and want you to be okay and happy.”

“Emma, I know that you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I really want to. And I want you to know that I love you so much.” David didn’t force her to look at him he knew she could hear him. It broke his heart that she only just knew he was her father, he wished that she beamed and ran into his arms, but he understood her reaction, no matter how much it hurt. 

Mary sighed as Emma clung onto her tighter. She rocked her then stood up with her still being rocked in her arms, she was fairly certain that Emma was mere moment away from crying. It was an awful lot for her three year old to understand, to take, but she needed to. “David we’ll see you tomorrow, I’ll text you the time,” she told him quietly she saw how panicked and worried he looks, “she’ll be okay, we’ll both see you tomorrow.” 

David stood up, gathering his things, he lingered a little as Mary started to pace, he wished he could help somehow, but he was a stranger. He opened the door and slowly walked out.

 

 

* * *

  
  
  


David left feeling completely lost, he had met his daughter, she knew who he was, but he was fairly certain she didn’t want him. He felt love for someone who did not want it. But he would be there for her tomorrow, he would be there for as long as she wanted him, for longer.

 

 

* * *

  
  
  


Emma started to cry as soon as David shut the door, Mary was sure that at least half of that was due to exhaustion. “Shh honey, it’s okay, mommy’s here my baby.” She found tears leaking from her own eyes. “I’m so sorry, it’s going to be okay, mommy will make it all better.” She swore as her daughter clung onto her as though clinging onto life itself. She made her way up the stairs and to her own room, she swaddled Emma in her blanket as best she could, and cuddled her to her chest, the family of two holding onto each other as tightly as they could against the tides of change.

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David gets to spend some time with his daughter for the first time and Mary starts to feel some mixed feelings

Emma woke up in the place which felt most homely to her in the entire world, she almost forgot the night before, almost. She cuddled her blanket closer to her body and wiggled so that she was buried more underneath her mom’s covers.

Mary finished putting her earrings in and getting ready for the day and walked back to her bed, it had taken Emma forever to settle down the night before, she almost regretted telling her, but she knew that in the long run it would be better for Emma to know from the start than to suddenly tell her weeks or months after she had gotten to know David. She smiled as soon as she saw Emma awake, she leant over and took Emma into her arms straight awake. “Good morning Emmy.” She watched Emma snuggle closer to her and debated keeping her home knowing that she was tired. She figured it was worth trying her at preschool, Emma loved preschool so much, she would be miserable if she couldn’t go. “You sleepy honey?” 

“Yeah.” Emma mumbled but didn’t move away from her even slightly. 

Mary paused for a moment, frowning down at the top of Emma’s head, something was on her little one’s mind, something more than she was already aware of that was. “Let’s get you a bottle of milk and we’ll have a little cuddle before we have breakfast and get ready for preschool.” 

She carried her as she grabbed Emma a bottle of milk, it was rare she used bottles anymore, normally when she was feeling sick or was really upset, today definitely counted. She cuddled her close as she flicked on some music and they sat in the living room cuddling, she noticed that the photo albums and coffee mugs were still on the table from the night before. “Emma, sweetheart, do you remember last night?”

“The man was here.”

“Yeah, David was here, do you remember what we talked about?”

Emma nodded her head, she waited for her mom to carry on talking, but realised her mom wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. “You said he was my daddy.”

“I did, David’s your daddy, and he really wants to get to know you. He’s going to come and play some games and have dinner with us after preschool.” She reminded her gently. When she had playdates Emma would be already off her lap and planning exactly what they would be playing with later, but Emma was not doing that, she was just quiet. “Emma?” She waited for her to look up. “I know that this is a really big change and surprise, and you’ll be feeling lots of big feelings, do you want to talk to mommy about how you feel?”

“No!” Emma shook her head, kicking her leg down to punctuation her point.

“Okay Emma, we don’t have to talk about it but we do have to still be nice and use our words, no kicking legs and shouting Emma.” She reminded her gently and pointedly.

 

* * *

 

 

Despite Mary telling her that she still had to behave Emma acted up the entire morning, she kept refusing to get dressed and eat, Mary tried to calm her down a little by coming up with alternative outfits and a different breakfast, and when she did that Emma started complaining that she wanted to eat the original food and wear the original outfit. Despite all of this Emma was acting even clingier than usual. By the time she had pulled up at the preschool at nine it felt more like nine at night than in the morning. She picked her up from her carseat and carried her through the front playground.

“Mommy, I wanna stay with you, I’ll be good.” Emma held tightly to her mother’s shirt.

Mary sighed gently as they approached the open door with Ashley smiling at them. “Oh honey, I know you’re a good girl, but you’re going to have so much fun at preschool today. Come on sweetie, you’re going to do lots and lots today, and have so much fun in this sunshine, and then we’ll have lots of fun this afternoon too.” She saw her friend looking at them curiously, Mary knew that it wasn’t like Emma to be acting like this, and Ashley knew it too. “Shall we move your name to show you’re in?” She asked her soothingly, normally Emma would be running ahead, she walked in and gently placed Emma on the ground and helped her move her picture and name from the beach part of the picture to the ocean part to show that she was there. “Do you want to play with the blocks or with the dolls house baby?” She rocked her gently.

“Wanna stay with you mommy.” She whimpered. 

“Honey, I know you want to but you’ll see me soon, I’ll come and pick you up at home time.” She spotted one of the teachers who smiled at her. “Wow, Miss Jenny is getting the toy animals out, I know that you love those.” She managed to settle her down next to the preschool teacher without Emma crying and clinging to her. “Bye bye sweetie, have a nice day, be good, and mommy will see you later.” She pressed a quick kiss to the top of Emma’s head before speed walking back to the door where Ella was still stood. 

“Is Emma okay?” Ella asked quietly. “She’s normally full of beans, is she well?”

“She’s well.” Mary said frowning as she looked back at her teary daughter. “I’ll tell you all of the details later but… I bumped into David, he’s erm, he’s Emma’s father.”

“What-!” 

“I’ll give you the details later.” Mary interrupted with the promise. “But anyway Emma met him yesterday afternoon without knowing who he was, and she was happy and talking to him, then she saw him last night when we were talking… I told her who he was and she was clingy last night, this morning she’s been clingy and acting out.” Mary sighed gently. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told her?”

“She probably would have been more upset at you keeping it from her, you know Emma, anyway what matters now is helping her get used to it. This David, is he good?”

Mary nodded her head straight away. “Yes.” She was as sure of that as she was her own name. “He’s the best man I’ve ever met.”

“You must have been good friends.”

Mary paused. “For one night, we were. We talked about everything and anything, I told him more than I ever told another person, he did the same to me.”

“Then Emma will be fine.” Ella assured her, she had never heard Mary talk about a man like that, or a man at all if truth be told. And she believed that Mary was a very good judge of character. “Just let them both get used to each other. And you should make sure your friends get to meet him, and not just Ruby!” 

Mary rolled her eyes but she was smiling now. “Well, you’ll be meeting him first, he’s going to be picking up Emma with me today. Stop smiling like that, you’re not torturing him, this is a preschool.”

“I would  _ never! _ ” Ella put on a look of offended innocence.

“I’m leaving now.” Mary laughed, she looked back at Emma with a look of concern.

“She’ll be okay.” Ella swore, placing her hand on Mary’s back.

  
  


* * *

  
  


David found himself knocking on the door at the apartment at the top of the apartment block, Mary answered the door again though this time she wasn’t looking nearly as dishevelled as she had the night before, he found himself missing the sweats and band tee look. She smiled at him as she invited him in, and his heart jumped, it was at the knowledge that he would be seeing his little girl again, he was certain of it. “Thanks.” He said walking into the apartment. In the light of day he saw the apartment in all of its glory, he saw that there were many plants and books, there was a large kitchen with even more books in there, it seemed as though Emma had just as many as Mary did. “How’s Emma?” He asked the question that had been on his mind making it nearly impossible for him to sleep the night before. “After last night, she was so upset, I’m so sorry.”

Mary took in his frowning and upset face. “It’s a big change for her, but she’ll adapt quickly, I think last night was a little bit because she was tired and had had a bad dream.” She saw that he was still looking a little worried. She placed her hand onto his folded up arms. “She’ll be okay David.” 

He walked over to the bookcase, though not to look at the books, instead it was to see the framed photographs on the bookcase. There were a few of Mary when she was younger: one was when she was maybe a little older than Emma with her own mother, he presumed, another of her mother holding a baby Mary, and the last was of the Mary he knew in high school, beside a woman he had seen a few times around so he knew that she was Mary’s stepmother. There were loads of photographs of Emma, ones of her and Mary, ones of Emma with other kids some around the same age, some older. 

“I made copies of those ones of Emma too.”

David jumped out of his skin when Mary appeared at his side suddenly. He saw a wicked smile appear on her face at having scared him. “You’re mean.” He shot back but was smiling too. He looked as she indicated a gift box style box on the dining room table. “Thanks, for all of the photos, I mean.” He walked over to it and lifted off the lid, he saw a huge pile of photographs inside, and his little girl’s face beaming up at him in front of a big pile of presents.

Mary watched as David smiled automatically. She smiled slowly as she realised something. “She has your smile.”

David’s head snapped to look at Mary with barely contained joy and excitement. “Really? Do you think?” 

Mary smiled back at him. “Undoubtedly. I love that smile,” Mary smiled as she grabbed her stuff ready to go, “it’s one of my favourite things about her.” She turned back and saw David staring at her with a curious expression she couldn’t quite place. “One of many.” she added. “You can leave them here when we go and get Emma, we can go in my car.”

David shut his agape mouth, and nodded his head, remembering himself. He let her lead him out of the apartment, and watched her lock the door, then they headed for the car to depart to the preschool.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


The preschool class was in the back garden when Mary and David got there, Mary shot Aurora a look when she opened the door to let them into the school, she knew that Aurora sometimes helped out there but she had a sneaking suspicion that Ella had called her for gossip purposes. Aurora just smiled and invited her and David inside and guided them to the back garden. 

“Woah, this is really cool.” David said looking at the garden. It was similar to his own apartment, a fairly decent size, but unlike his own completely blank garden this one had loads of plants and flowers growing, ones which the children clearly helped plant. His eyes quickly searched for his own child, that was still so weird to think that he had a child, but there she was unsurprisingly the child with the most mud and soil on her, he felt a little bit of pride at that. 

“Hi, I’m Emma’s teacher, Ella.” 

David supposed that he was going to have to get use to women making him jump. He quickly regained his composure and smiled at the lady. He was first struck by how pretty she was, sparkling blue eyes, and pristine blonde hair, he had always had a thing for blondes, other than Mary of course. “Hi, nice to meet you, I’m David.” He felt her eyes evaluating him, her smile made him think that he had passed some sort of test. “But I guess you already know that.” His hand went to the back of his neck and he rubbed it nervously. He realised that Mary was no longer beside him and saw that she was crouched beside Emma talking to her and Ella. He felt rather out of place.

“Sometimes I’m a little overwhelmed when I come here.” 

David looked over at the red headed lady who was talking to him, the lady who had opened the door to them, he gave her a faint smile. “Aurora, right?”

“I go by Rory, my mom gave me a bit of a posh name, it works well for business but in my personal life Rory’s a lot easier.” She led back him through to the classroom so that they could collect Emma’s bag and stuff.

“Oh, yeah, of course.” David grinned at her. “Are you one of the teachers here?” 

Aurora laughed a little. “No, no I own a cake shop in town, I make a lot of birthday and wedding cakes, and others, I even have a little cafe as part of it. No, I came here to pick up my partner,” she paused waiting for him to say that there wasn’t a man there but he didn’t so she finished her sentence, “Ella.” She swallowed deeply. 

David just smiled at her. “You make a very nice couple.”

“Not many said that when we got together, we both had ex husbands and kids, I think most people thought that we would have both gone back to our husbands.” She frowned, she had lost many friends and family to the closing of that possibility or even that likelihood. But she had gained a lot in return.

“A lot of people thought that about my moms.” David told her and saw that she looked surprised. “They got married a few years ago, a little after I started college, but Dora’s been one of my moms since they got together when I was a teenager.” He remembered his uncle taking control of him when Ruth and James were put into comas, Dora had wanted him to live with her, but she hadn’t been married to Ruth and an old legal document from when his father was alive had placed his ‘care’. “If you ask me, you’re better off without those sort of people.”

Rory smiled back at him. “I totally agree.” She walked over to the little cloakroom and came back with Emma’s bag. She handed the bag to David who held it extremely carefully. “Oh there’s a letter for the field trip to the zoo, we still need parent volunteers, remind Mary will you she forgot about it yesterday? And you’re more than welcome to join.”

David blinked in surprise at the invitation, however he didn’t have a chance to answer as he saw Emma holding onto her mom’s hand, and was pulling her inside to the classroom.

Aurora watched David smile, clearly unwittingly, as soon as he spotted his daughter. And she watched him and Mary share a humorous look, at Emma pulling Mary, there was something so deeply familiar in that smile.

“Mommy forgot my letter.” Emma announced to Rory and David. 

David crouched down holding Emma’s bag. “I heard about that, your letter’s safe in your backpack. Are you excited about seeing all of the animals?” 

Emma nodded her head eagerly, having forgotten whom she was talking to. “I’m gonna see lions, like me!” 

David chuckled. “You’re a lion?” He chuckled again as she nodded, this time she seemed to be shyer. “Ah, I see that your hair is like a little lion’s mane.” He was rewarded with a beaming smile, it broke his heart when she rather quickly wiped it away, all he could do was to keep trying and to go at Emma’s pace with how comfortable she was with him.

Emma leant against her mother’s leg, she suck her thumb into her mouth, and looked at David. He kept smiling at her and she kind of wanted to smile back, but she wasn’t fully sure, he was very new and it gave her an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She knew that she had had a bad a bad day at preschool, but her mom didn’t seem to care or be disappointed about that, she had just told Emma that David was there and they would all be going home to play. “Are you really gonna come to play?” She asked around her thumb.

David smiled gently. “I am, is that okay?”

Emma leant closer to her mother and shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe.”

“Thank you very much.” He said just as gently as he smiled at her, he supposed that that answer was as good as he was going to get at that moment. 

“Emma, remember to get the drawing you made, the one of the fishies.” 

Emma nodded her head at her teacher and went over to the drying rack to try and find it. 

David wandered over with her. “Do you want some help?” He beamed as though it was Christmas when she let him. “Is this it Emma?” He held up the splogy picture which looked a bit like fish, it was fairly good, especially for a three year old. He had always had some artistic ability, he wondered if he had passed it onto his daughter, he felt as much pride at the idea as he felt at knowing he gave her his smile. She nodded her head again. “Woah, that’s so cool! Are these orange ones Nemo and his daddy?”

Emma’s face lit up and she nodded her head eagerly. “Yeah! This is Dory.” She pointed to the blue fish. “She’s blue.”

“She is that’s very clever,” David praised,”I watched Finding Nemo when I was a little boy.” 

“I have that one at my home and I have Finding Dory too.”

“Wow, I’m jealous, I’ve never seen that one.”

“You can watch it with me and my mommy.” Emma said leading the way back to Mary, she let David carry her picture, knowing he liked Nemo made her like him a little more. 

David followed Emma holding carefully to the painting as he walked. As they left Ella reminded both Mary and David that they were happily accepting parent volunteers for the zoo trip. Emma started to list all of her favourite animals, which seemed to be all of them, as they walked to the car. She was mostly talking to Mary but David was happy that she wasn’t glaring or crying at him, nor was she hiding from him. 

 

* * *

  
  


“Wow Emma, you know lots of animals.” David praised eagerly as they stepped over the threshold of Mary and Emma’s apartment. “What’s your favourite animal?”

“Lions!” Emma shouted jumping up and down. “An’ monkeys ‘cause they’re funny and silly.”

David chuckled. “Those are cool animals.” He followed Mary and Emma towards the living room area of the downstairs. “My favourite are lemurs.” 

“What’s that?” Emma waited for her mom to sit down on the floor before sitting on her lap, she suddenly felt weird with David there, she wasn’t used to him being there at all. 

“They’re little and grey and they have long stripy tails.” David tried his best to explain. “Erm, have you seen the movie Madagascar?” He watched her face light up. 

“Alex the Lion!” Emma shouted dragging out his name as was done in the movie.

“He’s funny isn’t he? Well King Julien is a lemur.”

Emma thought for a second and grinned. “Okay. I like lemurs best too, and lions, and tigers.”

“And bear?” David asked with a smile.

“Oh my.” Mary smirked and burst into laughter as millisecond after David did. 

Emma looked up at her mom who was laughing and then over at her father who was also laughing, and started laughing herself, though she wasn’t quite sure why. 

When the laughing stopped Mary started to lead Emma and David in play, Emma was mostly joined to her side but was talking a little to David. 

“This is the police car.” Emma said grabbing her toy car and making it drive near the city they had made from blocks. “It’s gonna take Mr Monkey to live in the zoo not in the people homes.”

“Y’know, I work as a policeman.” David told her thinking nothing of it, but Emma stopped playing and looked at him, so he copied. 

“You’re a policeman?”

David took in his daughter, she tilted her head to the side as she questioned him, and she said ‘please-man’ not policeman, she was completely adorable. “Yes I am, I’m going to start being a policeman in this town really really soon, I’m going to be driving around in a police car with the sirens on soon.” He didn’t think it was possible but Emma looked even more excited.

“Do you getta make the siren make the loud noises?” 

Mary stood up smiling at how interested Emma was in David, neither Emma nor David noticed her stand up, she headed out of the room to go and make Emma a snack.

 

* * *

 

David was amazed that simply knowing that he was a policeman had gotten Emma completely interested in him, he was rather impressed with her knowledge for her age, and she started to tell him about all the times she had seen police cars. He patiently answer all of her questions, telling her that he was only just starting for the first time in a couple of weeks, and that he had just been in college learning how to be a policeman. 

Emma grinned at that. “My mommy went there, she was learning how to be a teacher, for big kids.” She stopped moving the toy car in front of her. She looked down at it. “Do I have to call you daddy?” She asked quietly. 

David paused before asking the question he knew the answer to. “Do you want to?”

Emma hesitated, then she shook her head. 

David reached out and gently placed his hand on her back, she looked up at him and he started to rub circled on her tiny back. “That’s okay Em, I know I’m new to you, we’re both getting to know each other, huh?” He watched the look of relief spread across her face as she nodded. “I want to be your daddy because I love you, but you don’t have to call me that until you want to. You can call me David if you like. My brother used to call me Davey.” 

Emma grinned. “Davey.” She decided and her smile grew as she saw her father beam. “I don’t have a brother, but I want one.” 

David carefully ruffled her hair his heart sung as he heard her giggle. “Well, my brother is called James, he’s your uncle.” He realised that Emma was sat right next to him and was leaning against him. “And people say he looks just like me, though I don’t think he does, I’m sure he’ll love to meet you.” 

“He’s my uncle? I already have an uncle Henry and an uncle Roland and they’re bigger than me but not big like mommy and you.”

“Well, your Uncle Jamie is the same size as me,” he smiled at Emma then up at Mary as he noticed her walking back into the room with a bowl in her hands, “and I have a sister like how your mommy has brothers. She’s your auntie, she’s cheeky just like you are.”

“What’s she called?”

“She’s called Tiana, she’s my stepsister, and your auntie.”

“Your mom got married?” Mary asked sitting down beside the pair, who now seemed to be best friends, she passed over the bowl of apple slices to Emma. “Here you go, sweetheart, apples just like you like.” 

David grinned. “Yeah, while I was in my first year at college, I came back for the wedding, it was beautiful. If I had known you were here-”

Mary placed her hand on his arm. “I know.” She quickly removed her hand from his arm and stroked Emma’s messy curls. “I swear this one would live on candy if I let her,” she subtly placed her hands over her ears to stop Emma from hearing, “I have to hide so many vegetables in her food, and fruit, honestly she’s a pain.” 

David heard her words but saw her absolute love for her little girl,  _ their  _ daughter, he was in awe that such an amazing little girl was his as well. 

“Davey?”

It took him a minute to realise that she was talking to him. “Yeah, kiddo?” 

“You can have some apple, it’s red so it’s yummy, green’s yucky, mommy has green.” Emma held out two slices of apple, in her little hands, up towards her father.

David carefully took the slices from Emma and when she carried on staring at him until he took a bite which made both of them smile. 

“Mommy?”

“Yes Emma?” 

“What’s for dinner.” 

“We have seashell pasta and mommy’s special meatballs.” She told her enthusiastically. 

“Yay!” Emma cheered raising her arms in the air she felt even happier when David and Mary both smiled and laughed, David even copied her action. “Mommy?”

“Yes Emma?” Mary said just as she had before. 

“Can Davey stay for dinner?” Emma pleaded. “I wanna show him my room and play games with him, we’re not finished yet. Please mommy?” 

Mary was a little surprised that Emma was so desperate for David to stay, she only really did that towards Mary’s family, normally it was just Emma and Mary. She wasn’t sure what happened while she was getting Emma a snack but it had somehow brought the two of them together. She shook off her shock and smiled gently at Emma. She looked towards David to try and gain an answer, he was grinning from ear to ear and he subtly nodded. Mary leant closer to Emma and whispered. “Okay, do you want to ask Dav- your daddy- nicely if he wants to stay for dinner?” 

Emma nodded enthusiastically. She turned away from her mother and swiftly climbed onto David’s lap making him look surprised yet again, but he quickly recovered and held onto her. She knelt up on his lap and held onto his shoulders to keep herself steady. “Davey will you stay for dinner with me and mommy? We have yummy pasta and maybe even ice cream if we ask mommy and eat all our diner.” She whispered the last part, her eyes darting to her mother and back at the idea of ice cream, she smiled hopefully at David. “And we can play more.” 

“I would love to do that.” He told her sincerely, and watched her look truly elated at his answer, he could live in that moment. 

Mary watched the pair with love, Emma had missed out on three years with David, and despite not being able to help that, not really, she felt so guilty that she had been the reason her daughter had missed out on a father. She should have done more, she saw how they had already bonded so quickly, she also felt a tiny bit left out but she didn’t actually care about that part. “I’ll get started on our dinner then. Why doing you show your daddy some of your toys, but remember we tidy up as we go along, don’t we?”

“Okay mommy. Come’on Davey you gotta see my dinosaurs!” 

 

* * *

 

David busied himself letting Emma show him what felt like every single one of her toys, and Mary started to get their dinner ready, listening to Emma chattering to David as Mary cooked. 

When dinner was nearly ready David appeared in the kitchen smiling easily at Mary. “Emma’s just gone to the bathroom, I asked if she needed any help, but she said she didn’t.” 

Mary saw him worrying but she smiled. “She’s pretty good at going potty during the day now, she’ll shout if she needs any help. She seemed to be enjoying herself, you did too.”

“She’s an amazing child. I just can’t believe she’s mine. She’s perfect.” David couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. He spotted the mats on the kitchen island, with three sets of cutlery including one set which was smaller specially for Emma, he scooped them up in his hands and started to set the table.

“You’re our guest I’m pretty sure you’re not meant to be doing this.” Mary called over but she didn’t stop him from setting everything, in fact she stood there watching him, there was something nice and homely about it all.

“I’m doing it, whether you want me to or not.” He smirked, he felt as though he were playing at being an adult, but it felt right somehow. “My mom raised me right. Plus, I wondered if by doing this you’d give me the secret of your ‘special’ meatballs?” He quirked one of his eyebrows. 

Mary giggled. “Ah, well, you’ll have to take this secret to the grave.” 

“Cross my heart.” He did the appropriate hand gesture. 

“Veggies.” He looked confused. “I hide vegetables in the sauce and the meatballs, they’re all grated down so they can barely be tasted, and Emma likes hers fully covered in cheese, but there’s all different vegetables in them.” 

David started to laugh loudly. 

“It’s the only way I can get her to eat enough of them!” Mary protested while laughing. “Even from the time she first started to eat food she hated them.” 

David stopped his laughter but the look of it was still on his face. “Well, a promise is a promise, if I, when I make her dinner in the future I might do the same.”

Mary smiled gently, she hadn’t even thought about that, that David would want to do things like that. Emma had gone to stay at Mary’s stepmother’s loads of times, Mary was used to that, but sharing Emma with David would be quite unusual, if they did, maybe he would only want to call in to visit her…. But she could tell by the look on his face constantly that David was all in, he wasn’t going to be a part time dad. And that was good… but it was also scary. “Yeah.” She said slightly breathlessly. 

David tilted his head to the side as he looked at her, his face was puzzled. “Are you okay?” 

Luckily Mary was saved by Emma running out of the bathroom. “Mommy I’m done! I washed my hands too.” 

“That’s such a good girl, Emma.” Mary grinned. “Why don’t you go sit down, I’m sure David, your daddy, will help you, he set the table for us.”

“That’s good Davey.” Emma patted his leg in a praising gesture. “You get a sticker for being good.” 

“Lucky me.” David chuckled. “I’m sure I won’t have more stickers than you have on your amazing chart, well done.” He led her to the table and Mary followed with food.

 

* * *

  
  


The small family ate their meal in peace, it was unusual for all of them but they were content with its strangeness. By the time the meal was finished Emma was covered in pasta shells and sauce, and was clearly getting very sleepy, but she hadn’t stopped talking and was obviously overjoyed to have both Mary and David with her, she seemed to be trying her best to get to know David and David did likewise. They had even made plans for David to go over the next day and bake with them, David felt he was going to be out of his depth, but he didn’t care. 

“I think it’s time that you show your daddy your bedroom and bring your pyjamas down, then we’ll say goodbye to David so we can have bath time, sweetie.” Mary told her gently, she brushed Emma’s hair out of her eyes, it would have to be washed but that could wait until the next day.

“Aww, but mommy-”

“-No sweetie, it’s late.” Mary said gently but firmly.

“It’s okay Em, I’ll be seeing you tomorrow, I promise. And we’ll be eating lots of cakes and sweet treats.” He grinned and gently stroked her cheek. 

Emma was pouting a little but she calmed at David’s words. “Okay Davey. Mommy can I show Davey my room now?” 

“Yes sweetheart you can.” Mary dropped a kiss onto the top of her blonde curls. “And you can choose some clean jammies, mommy will find some bubbles for your bath.”

David allowed himself to be taken by the hand and led up from the table and to the stairs. Emma showed him through one of the doors. 

“Wow, this bedroom is so cool.” 

“My mommy painted all this when I was in her tummy.” She pointed at the sky blue walls with the clouds, tree, and grass painted around. “But she says she can paint me new ones soon.” 

David marvelled at it, it seemed ideal for a little girl, it had a small toddler bed, a rocking chair, and a toy box with some of her quieter toys. There were pictures around, but most of all David felt a little lost- there were characters on her bedspread and as toys all around but he had no idea who any of them were. He needed to do all he could to try and get to know his daughter. “Let’s find you some jammies, yeah?” He suggested. “Do you know where they are?”

“They’re in my wardrobe.” She took his hand in two of hers and pulled him towards it, he opened it and pointed at the short pyjama sets. 

David picked up the top two sets and crouched down in front of Emma, he remembered his mother doing this to both James and himself when he was a child. “Which ones tonight? There’s blue ones with clouds, or yellow stripes with watermelons?”

“Hmm… Yellow, that’s my favourite colour.”

David grinned. “I think yellow’s a very good colour too.” He placed the other pair back into Emma’s wardrobe and smiled as Emma took his hand straight away. “Let’s get downstairs, huh? I think your mommy said something about a nice bubble bath for you.”

“Do you really have to go?” 

David stopped in surprise but when he looked down at her he realised that she was genuinely upset at the idea. He crouched in front of her again and placed his hands on her sides, gently rubbing her in a soothing way with his thumb as he held her. “Well it’s nearly your bedtime, and it’s nearly mine too, but I’m going to see you again tomorrow, and we’re going to do lots of baking so I think that we all need lots of sleep ready for that.”

Emma nodded her head but was sniffling. “You promise to come back?” 

“I promise, Emma I’m not leaving you at all, I’m going to be part of your life now, I promise. I’m sorry that I missed so much, I’m not going to miss any more, I promise. I’m your daddy and daddy doesn’t break promises.” 

Emma’s big green eyes looked into David’s blue ones and she paused for a minute before nodding her head bravely. “Okay, Davey.” 

David smiled and leant up, he kissed her forehead, and had to force himself to let go. “Let’s go find mommy.”

David led Emma carefully down the stairs where Mary was, he watched Mary scoop her up, Mary passed him over the box of copies she had made and smiled gently at him. “Thanks for coming, I think that Emma’s really enjoyed it,” she looked from him to smile at Emma who was now resting her head on Mary’s shoulder, she smiled back at him, “I’m glad you’ve both bonded so fast.”

“Me too.” He told her genuinely. “I guess I should be heading off, she looks like she’s about to fall asleep on your shoulder there.” He reached his hand out and gently stroked her curls. “I’ll see you tomorrow, my little lion, and I’ll see you tomorrow Mary.” 

“See you tomorrow David.” She smiled as she led him to the front door and opened it for him. 

“Bye bye Davey.” Emma said through a yawn as she waved at the departing figure.

David suddenly stopped in the doorway and turned back around to face them. “Mary?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, for all of this. And for being such an amazing parent for her, I’m going to be the same, I promise.”

Mary wasn’t sure what to say but luckily David took the decision from her hands and left. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Emma was quiet in the bath, even though she was tired she normally livened up a bit when she had a bubble bath, especially as she always played with her toys in it.    
Mary knelt by the side of the bath and gently wiped away the sauce from Emma’s cheek with a cloth. “Are you sleepy, baby?”

Emma shook her head and continued moving the toy boat slowly in front of her. “Mommy? Why didn’t Davey wanna be my daddy when I was a little baby?”

Mary sucked in a breath. “Oh baby.” She pulled her closer to her not caring that the bath water was soaking her own shirt. Her heart broke and for once she wasn’t sure what to say to make it right for her little girl. “Honey, David didn’t know about you until yesterday, mommy tried to find him while you were in my tummy, but I couldn’t find him. If he had known about you he would have been there for you every day, I can see how much he loves you already, he loves you just as much as I do. He’s going to be your daddy and I’m going to be your mommy, and we’ll both love you forever.” She kissed her head multiple times. “I’m so sorry, mommy’s sorry, I’m sorry baby.” She rocked her slowly, ready to get her out of the bath so she could give her a proper cuddle. 

“Mommy?” Emma’s voice squeaked.

“Yes baby?” She kissed her head again. 

“I only had you, now Davey’s gonna to be my daddy, do you have to get lost too?”

Mary looked down into the big green eyes which were a mirror of her own, she suddenly realised what Emma was afraid of, and why she had been acting out that day as a result. “You don’t have just one parents anymore, I promise, you have two forever, you’re not going to lose me or David.” She scooped her out of the bath and wrapped her up in her hooded yellow duck towel, she hugged her close. “You don’t have to worry anymore, baby. You’re not going to lose me or David, that’s a promise.” 

“You keep promises.” Emma said wisely, her mother had told her that she keeps promises for as long as could remember, and she kept her word. “Mommy?”

“Yes, Emma?” Mary started to dry Emma off. 

“Davey said he keeps promises too.” 

“Well, that’s very good isn’t it?” She grabbed one of Emma’s night time pull ups and slipped it on her before slipping her yellow pyjamas onto her. “I think we’re going to have a lot of fun tomorrow, we’ll do a lot of baking, I bet you’ll be able to teach David the best way to decorate our little cakes and brownies, I know that you’re so good at that.” She praised her daughter. “Now, how about we get some milk and I’ll read you a couple of storybooks before bedtime?” 

“Yeah.” Emma grinned happily and held her arms up to her mom to pick her up again. She looped her arms around her mom’s neck and pressed her cheek to her mom’s. “I love you mommy.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David, Emma, and Mary spend the day together baking.

“What’s wrong?” David asked, he heard the crying as soon as he took a step inside the . “Is she okay? Is she sick?”

Mary sighed gently. “My stepmother was going to take Emma to the park tomorrow but she’s gotten sick, and I can’t take her tomorrow, Emma’s not taking it well.”

David looked towards the living room where his toddler was led facing down on the couch and crying rather loudly. She was clearly miserable. “I could take her? We can see the birds, Emma can run around a bit and play on the playground, we could even have a picnic.” He offered, his smile grew as he spoke, thinking through all of the things he could do with Emma there. He realised that Mary looked surprised and suddenly felt bad. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, I know I said this is on your terms,” his hand went to the back of his neck and he rubbed it feeling short hair brush gently against his fingers, “I know this would… I shouldn’t have overstepped, I’m sorry.-”

“-  _ David, _ ” Mary reached to take the hand which was fussing with his hair, “can I speak?”

David chuckled sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“Thank you for offering.” She watched him look down waiting for her to say no. The silence between them was filled by their daughter’s weeping. “I think that Emma will love it. And... And I think we all need to get used to you looking after Emma too, we’re both her parents, it’s only right we…” She trailed off.

“Thank you.” David said earnestly. “I’m part of this, for the good parts, and the harder ones.” 

“I know, you’re going to be an amazing father.” The two shared a smile unable to tear their eyes away from each other, she watched his smile suddenly illuminate. She let out a small sheepish laugh. “What?”

David chuckled, he hadn’t realised that he had been staring. “Sorry I just, your eyes...” 

Mary quickly wiped them with her hands. “Oh do I still have sleep in them?”

“No, it’s just… Your eyes, they’re so green, but they have bits of gold in them-”

She swiped her eyes again. “-I think it’s just yellow-”

“-No, they’re definitely gold… They’re so like Emma’s… but, like, different... ” He continued to stare, unable to to tear himself away. 

Mary stared likewise. His eyes were unbelievably blue, like the sea, or the sky though she couldn’t tell if they were like the calm or the storm. The dark blue rims mirrored Emma’s blue ringed irises. 

David was the first to come to his senses. He took a deep breath in and smiled easily at her. “I’ll go stop our baby from crying.” 

Mary found herself frozen as she watched David walk over to the couch and Emma, a smile appeared on her face but she wasn’t too sure why, she guessed it was because David was being so sweet. It definitely not because he was a very attractive man, and that since she had bumped into him she kept remembering the night they had met, both the talking and the sex… she shook her head, she wasn’t the same woman she had been when they had last had sex with each other, she had had a couple of other short and very casual relationships under her belt now, but there was was just  _ something  _ about David.

 

* * *

  
  


David placed his hand on Emma’s back and watched her turn her head to look at him, he smiled gently at her and rubbed circles on her back, her crying calmed to just sniffling as she looked at him. “Hey there, buddy.” He cooed, smiling as Emma tried to move closer to him, if she wasn’t crying he would have said that she was happy to see him.

“Mommy can’t go the park with me.” Emma sobbed rubbing her eyes with her fist, her bottom lip stuck out as she looked at David, she wiggled closer to him while sniffling. 

“I’m sorry about that, kiddo.” He carefully and slowly pulled her into a hug wanting to give her a chance to pull away if she wanted to, he smiled as she immediately climbed into his arms, he moved so he was sat on the couch with Emma cuddled on his lap. “How about me and you go to the park instead?” He watched her eyes go wide. He quickly spoke again, babbling a bit like he did with Mary, what was it about these girls? “Your mommy can drop you off at my apartment, then me and you will go to the park together; we can play at the playground, and I can take a ball for us to play with, and I can pack a picnic for us to have too…. What do you say?” 

Emma looked at David, seeing him more and more as her daddy, he looked worried though with his eyebrows furrowed and biting his lip. Emma paused for a second before kneeling up on his lap and quickly wrapping her arms around his neck.

David froze for a moment, Emma was properly hugging him for the first time, her little cheek was cold against his and wet with tears, yet it was the best feeling in the world. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, his hand cradling the back of her head, wanting this moment to last forever. He gently kissed her cheek and saw her huge smile. “Is that a yes, Emmy?”

Emma nodded her head enthusiastically. “Yeah!”

“Inside voices, Emma.” Mary reminded gently, but she was smiling at the pair, Emma looked so happy and comfortable with David, and likewise David with Emma. “I think you’re both going to have a lot of fun.” 

“I think so too.” David agreed smiling at Mary, grateful for her letting him take Emma, and happy that Emma wanted to go with him. 

“And me too too.” Emma grinned as David and Mary burst into laughter. 

“Okay, come on you two,” Mary said eventually, “lets go and get baking.” 

“Davey, can you carry me?” 

David grinned down at her. “Of course, kiddo.” He stood up and Emma clung onto him he chuckled gently. “You’re like a little monkey.”

Emma giggled. “Nuh uh, you’re a monkey.”

Mary smiled as she led them to the kitchen, they both seemed to be getting along really well, Emma already had him wrapped around her little finger. “I’ve got things set up, why don’t you two wash up your hands and I’ll get Emma’s step for her to stand on.”

 

* * *

  
  


Once everyone's hands were washed they gathered at the kitchen island, which was covered in bowls and ingredients, David was stood beside Emma on her step, and Mary stood on the other side ready to instruct them.

“I can teach Davey, mommy.” Emma told her mom turning to look at David with hopeful eyes.

“I would love for you to teach me.”

“Yeah!” Emma shouted. She glanced at her mom then changed her voice to a shout whisper. “Yeah!” She repeated, making her parents laugh again. 

“What’s first?” 

“We got….” She looked at her mom not sure what they were doing first. Her mom leant closer to her and whispered in her ear. She looked back at David with a renewed smile. “We gotta make cake mix.”  

“Okay, kid.” David was grinning like a little kid on Christmas. 

“You let me and your daddy know what to do then.”

“We gotta put this in.” Emma told them pointing at the big bowl of flour. 

“Okay,” David picked up the bowl with a mischievous smile, he dumped the flour into the mixing bowl making a mini flour storm.

Emma burst into a fit of giggles. “Davey you’re silly.” 

David chuckled. “I guess I am, but guess what?” He got some flour and put it on her nose. “Now you are too.” He smirked. 

Mary smiled as she watched David and Emma both laugh, she joined in laughing too, feeling more and more relieved they were getting along considering they were going to the park the next day, just the two of them… not that she was jealous. “Hey Emmy, do you want to mix the eggs in this bowl.” She walked around the island to the other side of Emma’s steps. She grabbed a fork and helped Emma beat the eggs, she looked down at her daughter who was clearly having a lot of fun, then aside at David, he was grinning at Emma, and didn’t look jealous. Huh, she suddenly felt a little bad about how guilty she had felt, she guessed it would just take her longer to get used to being a parent with David and having to share Emma. 

Mary paused and looked at David, she supposed there could be a worse person to be with,  _ to be a parent with _ , nothing more of course. Perhaps friends. That would be okay. 

David felt eyes on him and looked up at Mary. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly. 

Mary heard how genuinely concerned he was and a smile appeared before she could stop it. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay, I’m good. I’m glad we’re doing this. It’ll be really good for Emma, and you, all of us really.” 

David smiled gently. “I am too, she’s a brilliant kid.” He quickly stopped Emma from mixing everything everywhere and Mary directed them all back to the baking, both David and Mary helped Emma mix the different mixtures for the cupcakes, sheet cake, and brownies. Mary kept eyeing David when he hinted at different ways to improve the things, but he kept pretending to be clueless. “Maybe I could have Emma some days, if  we should all hang out together some days?” He suggested. “

“I’d like that, so would Emma, it’ll be really good for her.” Mary noticed how Emma was leaning against David who was making sure she wasn’t going to fall. It was early days but Mary knew that nothing could ruin this moment. 

 

* * *

  
  


“David, can you put the brownies in the oven please?” Mary said smiling at him, she noticed he had a couple of Emma sized flour handprints on his shirt, he gave her a charming smile which made her heart fizzle. Indigestion, she decided, and quickly looked down at the cupcakes as she got them out of the pan. 

David picked up the brownie pan and bent down next to his daughter. “Hey Emma.” He stage whispered. 

“Yeah Davey?” Emma whispered, even louder despite not trying to be loud, her excitement was palpable.

“How about we make these extra special, hold out your hand buddy.” She did as he told her to and he shook in some metallic looking multicoloured chocolate stars. “You sprinkle those all over the top of the brownie. He watch her do so before sprinkling on some different coloured edible glitter. He watched Emma’s face light up. “There we go, fairy brownies.” 

“Woah.” Emma gasped. “It’s fairies favourite brownies.” 

“It is, pixies love cupcakes better.” He told her and revelled in her smile. 

Mary stared at David as he placed the pan of brownies into the oven

“I gotta go potty, mommy.” Emma headed for the bathroom.

“Okay honey, do you need any help?”

“No mommy, I can do it, I’m big.”

“Okay, honey, you call me if you need any help.” She watched Emma walk into the bathroom then turned to David. “You know how to bake!” She accused, her eyes sparkling. She had seen him using baking know how as they had been baking, this was no way this was his first time baking.

David shrugged sheepishly. “Emma wanted to teach me, she seemed really excited about that, plus you’re cute when you’re being bossy. My moms taught me when I was a kid, and my sister really likes baking so I’ve been forced to help her a few times.” He saw that she was still looking surprised. “Hey, I’m not just a pretty face, I also know like five cooking recipes too, I’m quite a catch.” 

Mary laughed, she found herself laughing even more, she just looked at him with his goofy and charming smile. “Wow, you really are,” she said finally managing to talk, “so let me guess lobster thermidor?”

“Oh no, much better, grilled cheese, and mac and cheese, pizza?.” 

Mary started to laugh again. “Anything without cheese?”

“Erm….” He rubbed the back of his head. “The cheese on pasta is optional? And I can grill hotdogs pretty good.”

“You sound like Emma.” 

“Cheese is good!”

David and Mary both jumped, they hadn’t noticed Emma coming out of the bathroom and appearing between them. David swooped her up into his arms and tossed her into the air. “I think you could be a little secret agent.” He told her, tickling her sides to make her giggle. 

“Did you wash your hands?” David turned his head to Mary as she said it at the same time as him.

“There’s not my step in there.” 

“Oh sorry, I moved it.” Mary remembered. 

“It’s okay, Mare, I’ve got this little monkey.” David said smiling at Mary, Emma was grinning in his arms, looking like the copy of him.

Mary found herself watching the pair head back into bathroom. She redirected herself back to the baking. Her home had never felt so homely, she put it down to baking, that was what made it homely, definitely. 

 

* * *

 

Emma looked at David with her hands covered in frosting and remnants of hundreds and thousands and edible glitter. “Davey, can you read to me?”

“Of course kiddo, let’s just get these cakes finished up and then-”

“No,” Emma dragged out, “not now, at bedtime?”

“Erm, well that’s a while later, we all have to have dinner first...” He looked at Mary and pulled a face trying to have a silent conversation before looking back at Emma, her eyes were wide as she looked at him with her puppy dog eyes, it totally worked though was unnecessary. “How about I stay here for dinner and then I can read you a story before you go to bed?”

Emma’s face lit up and she threw herself at David. 

David quickly caught Emma before she fell off of her step, he held her carefully in his arms and was a little surprised when Emma wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m gonna take that as a yes, monkey.” He chuckled. “How about we finish up decorating all of these cakes and then we’ll be done.”

“Okay, but I’mma stay with you.” Emma told him. 

David pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “That sounds like a good idea to me.” 

David kept hold of Emma as they decorated all of the many, many, cakes, when they finished they had a mountain of cakes and were all covered in icing, frosting, glitter, and candy. 

Emma yawned and hid her face against David’s shoulder. “I’m not sleepy yet.” 

David and Mary gently laughed. “Of course you’re not.” David said as he rubbed her back. He smiled up at Mary. “You erm, you have some frosting on your-” he reached across and wiped her face with his thumb, wiping off the blue frosting from the corner of her lip, he suddenly imagined himself kissing her lips. He quickly moved his thumb away. “How about I go pick us all up some pizza?.” 

Mary swallowed, for some reason she had thought about kissing him, in fact she was having a hard time trying to remind herself why it was a bad idea. “That sounds good.” she took Emma into her arms kissing her head, this was why it was a bad idea, she couldn’t have anything go wrong between her and David because he was Emma’s dad. “Emmy and I will clean up while you’re gone.” 

 

* * *

  
  


By the time David was back, and the three of them had eaten all the pizza and watched a movie, Emma was practically falling asleep on the couch between Mary and David and covered in various food types. David stood up clearing the plates and pizza box. “You need a quick bath before bedtime, little missy.” Mary told her lovingly. She kissed the top of her head as she stood up. “You stay here with your daddy, okay?” 

David had just finished putting the plates in the dishwasher and turning it one, when Emma appeared at his side, he crouched down so he was on eye level with his daughter. “Hey buddy, you’re looking pretty sleepy there.” 

“I’m not sleepy.” Emma told him but moved closer to him to lean against him again. 

David chuckled again. “Uh huh, sure you’re not Emmy.” He picked her up into his arms and swayed with her, he had seen people do that with babies, he was pretty sure it was the done thing. It seemed to be soothing her as she cuddled closer. “Hey, your mommy’s got to give you your bath before you fall asleep, squirt.”

Emma nodded her head and rubbed her eyes with her fists. “You gotta play too.”

“Play? It’s nearly bedtime, Em.”

“Play tea party with bubbles in my bath, Davey.” 

“Ah,” he nodded his head he supposed that made more sense, “if you want buddy.” He carried her over to the bathroom and leant against the doorframe, watching Mary move about the bathroom. He was struck by how beautiful she was, yet again, particularly with Emma cuddled against him. They had gotten along so well just four short years ago, and if life hadn’t gone how it had perhaps they would be living together in this apartment, or his apartment, or maybe even a house… Or maybe they wouldn’t have, maybe they would have tried and everything would have gone wrong and Emma wouldn’t be who she was now, he just wished he had a way to know. 

Mary turned around and saw David frowning, not at her or Emma, but into space. She walked over and placed her hand on his arm. “Hey, you okay?” She asked in a hushed tone.

David startled at at her voice, he quickly smiled. “Yeah, yeah I’m good, I have all I need right here.”

Mary wasn’t sure what he was on about but was glad to see him smile again, and she loved how he was looking at Emma with such love, she took Emma into her arms nuzzling their noses together. “Let’s get you in your bubble bath, huh?”

Emma nodded her head. “Uh huh, my daddy’s gonna play too, mama.” She yawned again. 

David gasped and his heart quickened, his mouth fell open, and he looked at Mary who was grinning at him, she must have said what he thought she said. She hadn’t called him daddy to his face but she had referred to him as her daddy! And that was pretty much as good. God, he couldn’t do anything to possibly affect that, he couldn’t hurt his little girl. “Uh huh, daddy’s going to play too.” 

Mary smiled at him then at Emma, she swiftly undressed Emma and put her into the bath. “Are we all going to have a nice tea party then, princess Emma?” She knelt down next to the bath and David copied her. 

“Nuh uh, mama, I’m a superhero Emma tonight.”

“Oh of course.”

“What superhero are you today, Em?” David asked accepting a plastic teacup topped with bubbles.

“Erm…” She thought for a moment, then her face lit up again. “Spidey-Man!” She exclaimed. 

“Spiderman’s so cool! Emmy-Spiderman’s even cooler.” David grinned. 

“Especially as Spider-Emmy doesn’t do lots of climbing on things like bookcases, remember, sweetheart?” Mary said firmly feeling relieved when Emma nodded in agreement.

“Did she really...?” David whispered.

“Yes, a lot, whenever she tries to be spiderman.”

David hid a laugh and Mary playfully pushed him, he finally managed to hide his laugh and pus on a serious look to nod his head. “Yeah, that’s really good, the best way to be spiderman. Plus you can be climby spiderman tomorrow at the park.”

Emma grinned. “Yeah! And go on the swings, that’s my most favourite thing, and feeding the ducks.” 

“Well, we’ll do all that tomorrow, and we’ll have a nice picnic too.” David told her. 

They played and Mary advised David in how to wash Emma, knowing he would have to do it on his own one day, and soon got Emma out and changed her into her pull up and pyjamas.

 

* * *

 

 

Mary carried Emma upstairs with David following them. 

Mary settled Emma down in her bed with her special blanket and tucked her in. “I love you so so much my little ducky,” she gave her a kiss goodnight and Emma gave her one back, “if you want mommy I’m just going to be downstairs, and if you wake up at night mommy will be in her bed and you know you can come and get me.” She wasn’t used to having someone putting Emma to bed in her own apartment, not unless she was sick and a few times Ruby or Regina helped out. She forced herself to take a deep breath and relax, trying not to feel worried or controlling. She took a look at David and took a deep breath, he smiled and her and she relaxed, she looked back at her sleepy toddler. “Your daddy’s going to read to you now, mommy will see you in the morning and we’ll get your backpack ready for your super fun park adventure with your daddy. I love you so much.” She gave her a big smile and another kiss. “Night night, baby, sweet dreams.”

David settled down next to Emma on her bed with a book. “Okay, this book is called ‘The last Noo-Noo’, and it’s about a dragon and his pacifier.” He started to read the book to his daughter, putting on funny voices, and Emma cuddled into his side as he read. Before he even got close to the end she was fast asleep. He placed the book on the side table, made sure that she was tucked in nicely, and that her night light was on. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Daddy loves you so much, baby, I always have and I always will, even if we didn’t know about each other, I still loved you lots.” He kissed her again before double checking everything and slowly leaving the bedroom, he could barely stand to be apart from her, even if they would spend the next day together.

 

* * *

 

 

He walked down the stairs and saw Mary in the kitchen putting things away. He walked over to her with a smile. “Here, let me help.” He took the plates from her and put them in the right cupboard. “This has been really fun. Emma, she called my daddy, well she referred to me as daddy but… It’s basically the same right?”

Mary placed her hand on his chest. “Hey, relax, you’re right it’s the same thing, Emma adores you, trust me. She’s not normally that cuddly with people, she’s quite shy, she clearly loves you. And you’re so going to have amazing fun tomorrow.” 

David breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re right. And thank you, for letting me take Emma to the park tomorrow, I’m sure it must be weird having me around now…”

“It’s n-...” she went to deny but saw David’s face, she sighed gently. “It’s different, for sure, but Emma’s really happy, and we’re going to make this work, we’re a team now.” 

“Yeah,” David agreed, he smiled at Mary but slightly regretted saying what he said next, “and I’m going to put Emma first, just like you always do, so… friends, yeah?”

Mary’s heart dropped, but she forced on a smile. “Yeah, friends, Emma goes first.” And she meant it, though the promise didn’t mean that it hurt any less. She decided to change the subject. “I’ve packed you some of the different cakes and brownies, I think we have about a hundred, and you definitely deserve them.” She laughed feeling a little less stressed. “And I packed some more for your picnic.” 

“Awesome, thanks.” He rubbed the back of his neck, she seemed to find this all so much easier than he did. “She’s not allergic to anything right? I was thinking pb and j’s, some fruit, cakes, that sort of things.”

“She’s only allergic to oranges, I’m sure she’ll love the rest of that, she loves pb and j’s. I guess I’ll see you in the morning?” 

“Awesome, I’ll text you my address, and if you bring anything she needs and text me anything I need to get her?”

“That sounds really good. I’ll see you in the morning, night David.”

David followed her to the door with the boxes of cakes and his stuff. “Good night Mary.” 

Mary’s heart fluttered at the sight of his smile. She wanted him to stop smiling and to never stop smiling. “Goodnight, David.” She went onto her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, platonically, of course. Once he had gone she poured herself a glass of wine. She pulled out her yearbooks, and one of Emma’s photo albums. In the back of one of them she managed to find out of the only photos of the two of them together. It was one her school friend had taken, of her and David sat together, she had his jacket wrapped around her shoulders, and they were smiling at each other, it was the night they had had sex, and created Emma, and he was smiling at her the same way that he had been smiling at her this entire day. She sat there staring at it and the rest of the photos, drinking wine, until she dragged herself to bed

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma spends the day at the park with her father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this hasn't been updated in forever- my bad...  
> I have future chapters planned but they probably won't be written straight away.

“Can I press it mommy?” Emma was buzzing with excitement she could barely keep hold of her mom’s hand. 

“Yes sweetheart.” Mary picked her daughter up into her arms, well one arm, in the other she was holding Emma’s carseat, on her back was Emma’s backpack.   
Mary had been feeling so… well she couldn’t even word it, but it had nearly made her cancel her plans to take Emma to the park instead or even with David. She was used to being a single parent, suddenly having David there all the time was a big change, but Emma already adored David, and both Emma and David deserved to be in each others lives.   
She put her finger on one of the buttons. “Press this one and your daddy will let us in.” 

Emma pressed it and they were immediately buzzed in. 

“Can we go in the elevator mommy?” 

“Sorry honey, not today.” She chuckled at how excited Emma was about the elevator. She led her down the short corridor to the door with the number three, there were no other doors down this bit of corridor and the place was very nice and modern looking, and while she lived in a nice apartment it wasn’t necessarily the nicest or cleanest place, and it was pretty old, unlike David’s. She lifted her hand to knock but Emma beat her to it. David has clearly been waiting for them as he opened the door as soon as Emma started. 

“Hey guys.” His smile took up half of his face and his blue eye sparkled as he looked down at Emma. 

“Davey!” Emma threw her arms around his legs and hugged him tight. 

David let out a laugh, which brought life to the (still rather empty) modern place, and brought a smile to Mary’s face. He reached down and took Emma into his arms. “Hey Emmy, I missed you so much, did you have a good sleep?” She stood aside and nodded his head to invite Mary inside as Emma started to talk to him all about the breakfast she had eaten a fairly short time ago. 

“Is this your home?” Emma asked interrupting herself. 

“Yeah buddy it is, I’ve only just moved in so I’m not fully unpacked yet, do you want to look around it?” 

“Yeah!” 

Both Mary and David laughed at Emma excitedly jumping up and down. Mary placed the toddler’s carseat down in the entrance hallway.

David led them around the place: he pointed out the office with its big desk and bookshelf. He pointed out the bathroom and cloakroom as they passed before showing them the living room with its big comfy couch and big tv. There was a big shelving unit he had put up but currently only held cardboard boxes on the various shelves, with some of his old dvds and game consoles he hadn’t yet unpacked, and picture frames he had made sure to pack. 

The dining room table held a few more boxes and his toolbox which he had quickly added a lock to this morning but had forgotten to move, so he quickly picked it up and added it to the top shelf of the dining room closet. 

He scrubbed the back of his head with his hand and gave a sheepish laugh. “I swear there were less boxes in here earlier.” 

“You should have seen the loft when I first moved in there, I was pregnant with Emma but I had already bought like everything for her, as well as Gina and Robin buying loads for her already, and my friends... “ She shook her head with a laugh. “Anyway, honestly this is much better than mine was, I had like a million boxes around until Emma was like two.”

“I helped.” Emma chimed in from where she was looking out of the window.

“No, honey, you were still in mommy’s tummy.”

Emma’s voice took on a stern edge. “No, I helped too.” 

Mary bit her lip trying not to laugh, it was harder as David was clearly trying to hide his laughter behind his hand. “Okay, sweetheart, sure you did.”

Emma ran back over to her mommy and David’s sides. She reached up and rugged on his cargo shorts. “Can I help you do it?” Her eyes shone with hope. “I’m really good at helping, aren’t I mommy?” 

David crouched down to her level as Mary patted her head soothingly. “I would love your help, we’ll go to the park first, we can play and have a picnic, then we’ll come back here and you can help me and we’ll have dinner before mommy comes to take you back home.” He was suddenly aware that he felt a little saddened that it was only Mary’s apartment that Emma knew as her home, not his own too. 

“Okay, we get to go the park now?” 

“Soon, Kiddo, I’ve just got to finish showing mommy around my apartment, and you too.” 

“Why?” 

David paused. “Because mommy needs to know that you’re safe and- and because mommy and daddy are friends so I wants to show her and you my new place…” He felt a small thrill at being able to refer to himself as her dad, he couldn’t believe that just a week ago he didn’t even know Emma existed, in fact he had just got back from vacation. “And because you’re going to be spending more time with me, sometimes at mommy’s house, sometimes here…” He looked up at Mary who was watching them carefully, she realised he was looking at her and she gave him a smile, and nodded her head in agreement. He mouthed ‘thank you’ then looked back at their daughter. “What do you think about that Emmy?” 

Emma beamed. She nodded her head with the huge smile still overtaking her face. “Yeah!” She looked around the room they were currently in. The place didn’t have toys like her home with her mommy did. “I got toys in my backpack, mommy’s got it.” She pointed at her mom who smiled but didn’t put the bag down. 

David grinned and kissed Emma’s forehead. “Good, we can play with them later, and I’ll get some more so we have more to play with when you’re here.” He stood up again and he felt Emma’s hand enclose around his. He smiled and continued the tour. 

He pointed out the laundry room which had another door leading to the bedroom hallway, but he took them the slightly longer route through the (now stocked) kitchen, with its island and stools, and it’s modern new appliances. There was a door to the garden and another to the deck, but they didn’t go out, David knew if they did he wouldn’t be able to get Emma in again, he wouldn’t be able to show Mary the rest of the apartment, the bits he really wanted to show her. He let them through the entrance to the hallway, showing them the big family bathroom with the giant bath even he could lay down in if he wanted, next to it was a big empty bedroom, and then his own with the king size bed, en-suite, and walk in closet.

Emma ran around his bedroom looking at the few things he had unpacked and climbing onto his bed with a proud smile on her face. 

David realised that while she had looked at the room she was no longer there. He popped his head out of his room and saw her in the doorway of the spare room. He checked to make sure there was nothing dangerous in his room Emma could get hurt with, once he was sure he walked out of his room, to Mary’s side. 

“It’s a good size room.” 

“Yeah, yeah it is… when I bought it I wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for, just a spare room I guess. Now I, now I’m hoping to turn it into Emma’s room, for her to have when she’s here to play in, and when she’s ready I was hoping she could sleep over…”    
He rubbed the back of his neck, in the back of his head he could hear his uncles voice telling him not to look so weak, his dads angry drunk voice telling him to ‘grow some’, to stop being so sensitive, though he didn’t agree with them even slightly, and he knew that neither would have even begun to understand the fact he wanted an active role in his kids life. 

Mary swallowed. She knew that she shouldn’t be surprised, from the moment  David had found out about Emma he wanted to be in her life, to be involved, and Emma loved him, in fact it was the thing she had started to ask if she was going to see her ‘daddy David’, both that morning and the morning previously, two out of the total of three days she had known him. She knew it should have been three years. She watched him scrubbing at his neck, she had seen him do that a lot, when they had been talking, and when they were teenagers talking too. She found it rather endearing.     
“That would be perfect, she’ll love it, she’ll, she’ll love spending time with you.” She smiled warmly at him and surprised herself that her smile was truly genuine. “You know this morning she woke up at like five, she was insisting we woke up so she could go with ‘her daddy’ to the park, she’s very excited.” 

David let out a laugh and a breath he didn’t know he was holding at the same time. “Really?” 

“Yeah, I had to play Netflix on my iPad, watching some cartoon puppies were the only thing to keep her in my bed for another couple of hours.” 

David shook his head with a big smile on his face. “She’s a little firecracker.” The pride was clear in his voice. 

They moved from looking at what would soon be Emma’s bedroom, back to watching Emma playing around in David’s room, she began to try jumping on David’s bed, he threw himself onto the bed and started to play with his daughter, tossing her into the air and catching her, making her giggle like crazy. 

Mary smiled watching them but eventually walked over to David and Emma playing. David sat up with Emma on his lap. Mary handed him Emma’s backpack, a Paw Patrol one. “I packed a spare pull up in there but she should be okay, she’s pretty good, and she already has one on. There’s a change of clothes as well as her pjs.” 

“An’ I gots toys!” Emma stood on David’s thigh, her arm wrapped around his neck as she leant against him. “An’ Puppy.”

“Awesome!” David grinned, his arm was securely around his daughter, just in case she fell. “Puppy can guard the house while we go to the park, then when we come back we can play with your toys, and maybe watch a movie before dinner.” He watched her smile grow. He smiled at Mary. “Thank you.” And he meant more than just for handing him the toddler’s backpack. 

“It’s okay.” She felt a lot more relaxed now that she had spoken to David, the fear, or whatever the feeling was, of having to share Emma suddenly. She handed him a note. “I left the carseat in the entrance. And I’ve written down all my contact numbers, I know you have my cell but there’s also the landline, I’m going to visit my step mom and her family ‘cause they’ve all been ill, hence you taking Emma,” she could feel herself rambling, “and I need to, erm, tell them about you, finding you, and you being part of Emma’s life… They love Emma, and she loves her grandparents… but be prepared for an invitation from my stepmom, Regina will probably set a spanish inquisition on you.”

David let out another chuckle as Emma started to climb on him as though he were a climbing frame. He gave Mary a sheepish smile. “Yeah, I asked my moms if we can have meal tomorrow night, us and my brother and sister, I’ve got to tell them about Emma… Don’t get me wrong I’m sure they’ll be thrilled, I just...” He didn’t say that telling his moms made all of this feel real, finally, but it was what he thought. That was why he wanted to tell them so soon, truthfully. He was mostly just trying to put off how they were bound to act. “They’re going to practically smother her with attention.” He moved Emma to sit back on his lap, his hand stroked her hair calmingly. “They’ll want to meet her, you both,” he pulled a funny looking scared face which made Emma laugh and try to copy it, “I have a feeling they’ll love you.” 

Though Mary wasn’t so sure, especially if they loved Emma so much, they would probably resent her for not doing more to find David, and she thought that she probably deserved that. She cupped her daughter’s face in her hands and kissed her. “Honey, you have a good day with Daddy, okay? And be good, remember to tell daddy when you need to go potty and go before you go to the park, he can help you, okay? I’ll see you after dinner.” She gave her another kiss then kissed her forehead. “I’ll pick her up around 7?” 

“It’s okay, I can drop her off, I’ll have her in her pyjamas, that way she’ll just need a story and bed.” He smiled easily. 

“Oh, okay, actually that might be good… I think I might need some wine after talking to Regina.” 

“Grandma?” Emma perked up. 

“Yeah baby, mommy’s going to go and take her some medicine and soup.” She was being a little sarcastic but Emma was too young to notice, and too young to know that Mary wasn’t looking forward to talking to her family. 

“An’ Grandpa?” 

“Yeah honey, Robin too, and uncle Henry and uncle Rolo. You’ll see them soon I’m sure, you have a good day with daddy, and I’ll see you later, if you need me you can ask daddy to ring me, okay?” Mary kissed her daughter again then looked at David.

David could see the uncertainty in her eyes, not because she didn’t trust him, he could tell that much, but he got the feeling that, from what she had said over the past few days she normally only left Emma with close and responsible friends who she had known for years or with her family. Truthfully despite only knowing his kid for a couple of days he felt beyond protective of her. “We’ll call when we stop for lunch, about twelve, and when we get home from the park before her n-a-p.” 

“Thanks David.” She felt at least a little relieved. She kissed Emma one more time before starting to leave, David was holding onto Emma. “What’s wrong.” 

“My moms always told me it was polite to see people out.” He said sheepishly. She smiled at him and he was a little relieved to see that she wasn’t offended by this at all. They got to the door and he smiled at her, holding Emma close in his arms. “We’ll see you tonight, and ring you later, won’t we Emmy?” 

“Yep! Bye bye mommy!”

“Bye honey, I’ll see you soon, be good, okay?” She smiled as she nodded. “I love you.” 

“Love you too mommy.” She started to wave as Mary walked away. 

“Good luck!” David chuckled as Mary shot him a look. “We’ll wave from the kitchen, it’s near where you parked, I saw you guys drive in.” 

David carried Emma back through to the kitchen and stood her on the counter, holding onto her waist, together they waved at Mary’s car. 

“Come on, Kiddo, let’s get your backpack ready for the park, I made us a cool picnic to take too, and I got us a ball to play with too.” 

  
  
  


* * *

 

 

 

Soon David had sorted both himself and his daughter out, fitted Emma’s carseat into the back of his car, then drove to a park twenty minutes from his apartment. 

He parked in the lot then helped Emma out of her seat, he helped her put on her mostly empty backpack, he put on his own too. “Okay, ready to jump down, buddy?” 

“Yeah!... Can you help me Davey?” 

“Of course.” He placed his hands on her waist ready to lift her. “Three, two, one, blast off!” with blast off he lifted her out of the back of his car and into the air above his head making her laugh. “Wow, you jumped so good, Emma.”

Emma giggled and quickly hugged his leg before taking hold of his hand. “Thank you. Duckies now?” 

“Duckies now.” He said like a promise, he started to walk through the park, it was one he had gone to when he was very young, before his mother and father moved him and his brother to the city for his father’s work. He had been back here a summer ago, when he was staying at his moms’ for the summer, he hadn’t known then that Emma was just a few miles away. 

“This isn’t my park.” 

David looked down at Emma, he thought it was beyond adorable that she tilted her head to the side when she sounded confused, he realised that she looked like Mary when she did so.    
“It’s not? Well, this is the one daddy went to when I was a little boy, with my brother, and my sister.”   
He remembered his mom and Eudora meeting at the park with all of them, he was starting to think there was another reason his father decided he didn’t want to commute to the sister any longer.    
“There’s a playground, and a duck pond, and a big field to run around, and lots more.” 

Emma let out a cheer as she skipped along side David, he slowed his walking so she wouldn’t have to work quite so hard to keep up with her, they walked chatting as they walked through all the paths with trees and flowers, which Emma seemed to love. 

 

* * *

 

 

Eventually they reached the duck pond, it was so big it had two bridges going over it to lead to the other side. 

“Woah.” 

David grinned at her awe. “I know, it’s really cool isn’t it? But we have to be really careful near the water, so you’ve got to listen to daddy, yeah?” 

“Okay daddy.”

David felt like he was soaring when he heard her call him that, he always felt so happy when she referred to him as Daddy, but being called it was beyond any happiness he had ever experienced, beyond getting his degree, beyond being hired as a detective at Storybrooke PD, beyond watching his moms get married, probably equal to his mom and twin getting out of their medical comas and his uncle being locked away.   
“Good girl.” 

He took her bag off of her back. “I put together some special duck food.”    
He got out a food bag which was full of a mixture of defrosted frozen peas, corn, seeds, oats, and small pieces of lettuce: he normally would have asked his little sister what was best to feed the ducks, but that would have meant her asking why he needed to know and he couldn’t tell her before Ruth and Eudora, so he researched it on the net. He placed some of the duck food into her hand.

Emma smiled and threw the food to some of the ducks starting to gather. “Mommy says it’s good to feed the duckies this food not breads, bread give them upset tummies.” 

“Your mommy’s very right, this is good for duckies to eat this, it’s like how it’s good for you to eat fruit and veggies.” 

“I like candy and pizza bestest though.” 

David chuckled. “Yeah, kiddo, me too.” He crouched next to his daughter, watching her carefully and throwing some food himself. 

“Am I really gonna get to spend time with you, like you said?” 

“Yes, Emma, yeah you are, we’ll do visits out to places like this, and you’ll come over to my apartment and we’ll play and read books, we’ll do things you love. How do you feel about that?” He gently rubbed her back gently. 

Emma turned her head from the ducks to look at David. “I get to have a mommy  _ and _ a daddy now?” 

“Yeah, buddy, I’m sorry that you didn’t have me for longer, I’m sorry that I didn’t have you for longer too. But you’ll still have mommy, you’ll just have me too now, and you’re never going to lose me.” 

“Okay… Are you gonna live with me and mommy?”

“No honey, I’m going to live at my apartment, but we’re going to see each other lots I promise. And I’m going to come to the zoo with you and mommy and your preschool this week, and to the beach with you guys.” 

Emma threw the last handful of the food to the quacking ducks then threw her arms around David who immediately hugged her back. “You gotta wear suncream or mommy and Ella won’t let you come.”

“I’ll make sure I wear some then, I wouldn’t want to miss out on a trip to the zoo or the beach with my best girl.” 

“So which duckies are your favourite.” 

“The pretty green ones.” 

“Y’know those are the boy ones, the girl ones are all brown.” 

“What are the baby ones?” She pointed at the ducklings which had been born a couple of months before. 

“Y’know I’m not sure yet, I guess we’ll have to keep coming back to find out.”  He got out his phone to take a few pictures of Emma with the ducks and ended up taking a few selfies she also wanted him to take.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Emma tapped him on the arm. “I’m hungry.”

David checked his watch. “It’s not quite lunch time but I did pack you a snack, shall we go sit near the flowers to eat?”

Emma grinned, she knew that her mommy always remembered snacks, she didn’t realise that her daddy would remember to do the same. She took hold of his hand again and they walked. 

“Is this bit good?” 

“Hmm… we need more flowers and trees bit.” 

“Okay buddy, it’s a good job you’re here to choose the best bit, I would have had no idea.” He let the three year old lead the way. She found the place she wanted to sit and sat. “Let’s just scoot you over so you’re not in the sun.” He moved her a little so she was in the shade of one of the trees. “We’ve gotta be careful even though you’ve got suncream on.” 

“Uh huh, you gotta keep caps on an put suncream on and you gotta be safe.” 

“That’s a very clever girl.” He took his backpack off and took out the little container containing cut up apples and bananas and opened it passing it to her, he also gave her a juice box and had some water himself.  His phone buzzed and he checked it, he ignored a message Killian had sent him, he hadn’t told his best friend about Emma yet, he wanted to but he wasn’t sure he would understand, he couldn’t ignore him forever, but he also couldn’t reply to the ‘you okay?’ message with a lie. He moved onto Mary’s message, he could practically feel her worry radiating through the phone, he also had a sneaking suspicion that Mary was trying to avoid talking to her step mother and step step father. He shot back a text saying what they had been up to, that they were sat in the shade and Emma was having a healthy snack, he snapped a picture and sent it along with the pictures of Emma feeding the ducks, and the selfies. 

“These are very good apples and nar-nas.” Emma praised as she ate. 

“You’re very welcome, munchkin.” He took a swig of his water and was passed a slice of banana. “Is this for me?” She nodded so he ate it. “After you’ve finished do you want to play on the playground or do you want to play soccer with the ball I brought?”

Emma wiggled and fidgetted, clearly very excited about the prospect of both of the options, She moved closer to David as she did so. “Playground first! Please.” She added as an afterthought. 

“Playground it is. Good girl remembering to say please.“ 

  
  


* * *

 

 

 

After that Emma seemed to finish her snack very quickly. David put away their empty container and threw the juice boxes into the trash as they walked along the pond to the playground. The place was surprisingly quiet for a sunday, only a few people there, and mostly the kids were around Emma’s age. David left his and Emma’s backpacks on a bench near the play equipment and crouched in front of his daughter. “What do you want to play on first Emma?” 

“Swings!” 

“Good idea, they’re the best-” Emma took off towards them where another kid was on one, he quickly picked her up into his arms “- Emma, you’ve got to be careful, you can’t run in front of them, you could get hurt.” 

“Sorry.” She mumbled.

“It’s okay honey, I just worry about you getting hurt, let’s walk behind the swings, huh?”    
He noticed that there were two different types of swings, ones for young kids and ones for older kids, he knew that Emma was headstrong, and he thought that she was the smartest kid he had ever met, but he was pretty sure that she was way too small for the big kids swings, he didn’t want to have to rush her to the ER cause he pushed her too much.    
He settled her into the swing with the special guard to stop her falling. “You all comfy?”

“Yeah. You gotta push me.” 

“Okay baby, hold on tight. Let me know if you want to go higher.” 

The two played for a while at the playground area for a while, David was discovering so much about his daughter: she loved swings and liked to be pushed high, she liked the slide but got bored with it after a couple of goes, the same with the roundabout, but the swings and the climbing frame she loved, she told David that she was going to be Spiderman when she was ‘all big’. She also kept calling him Daddy, and he found that he felt just as happy every time as he did the first time she called him it, he kept a huge smile on his face as did Emma on hers. 

“Okay spider-Emmy, I think it’s lunch time now, we can play again a bit later.” He plucked her off of the climbing frame into his arms.    
He vaguely noticed some (hopefully) single moms smiling at him and checking him out, but he only cared about his daughter right now, after all it wasn’t like Mary had been dating, or not that he knew of, though it wasn’t like they had talked about it- they weren’t friends like that, or possibly at all, he honestly didn’t know what they were, co-parents, he had a crush on her, or possibly what was left of a crush on her from years earlier, but she very clearly had no interest in him, and he wasn’t about to put Emma in the middle of a new unstable relationship that could easily fail.

“It’s a picnic!” Emma half shouted with joy, he had spread a throw on the grass and sat her on it and was now unpacking sandwiches, chips, and the cakes they had made the day before for the two of them.  

“It is, you’re right. And sunny weather’s the best for picnics.” 

“Uh huh, if it’s rainy then you have to eat rainy sandwiches.” She giggled.

David chuckled. “Silly girly.” He tickled her making her giggle more. He got out a bottle of juice for her and another for himself. “Make sure you drink all of that, you’ve been playing a lot, you can go the potty after lunch.”

“Okay, I don’t need to go right now but I’ll go after lunch time.” 

“That’s a very good girl.” He wasn’t sure if the kid was just hungry or if his PB&J sandwiches were just that good, but she practically wolfed it down, along with chips and cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Playtime now?”

David chuckled, he was surprised she managed to wait until he was finished, she asked him as soon as he put the last mouthful into his mouth. “Let’s wait until your food has gone down a bit, we don’t want you throwing up,” he tickled her stomach making her giggle and wiggle again, “let’s throw away the trash, you can go the potty, then I’ve got a surprise to show you.” 

“A ‘prise?” 

“Yeah, munchkin, a surprise. You want to hold my hand to walk or do you want me to give you a ride?” 

Emma thought for a minute before raising her arms up to her father. “Please daddy.” 

David felt a paternal tug in his stomach looking down at her. He immediately picked her up. “I love you so much Emma, I’m never going to leave you, I promise.”

Emma paused. “Okay daddy.” 

David chuckled and pressed a kiss to her head. 

  
  


* * *

 

 

 

After taking the toddler to the potty David carried her on his shoulders around to part of the park they hadn’t been in before. 

“This the ‘prise?” 

“Nearly princess, just in this special building.” He opened the door and carried her inside. The greenhouse like building had its own mini waterfall, it was full of plants and flowers. 

“Woah.” Emma dragged out the word as she looked around, the place looked amazing, even to a three year old. 

“This place is called an aviary, it means it’s a special home for birdies. See.” He brought her down so she was more in his arms so he could show her things easier.  “Those ones are parrots, they copy noises and words.” 

“I do that too.” 

David chuckled as the bird made a noise and Emma copied it. 

Emma gasped loudly. “A dinosaur!” 

David heard the excitement in her voice and tried to understand what she meant. 

“Look, daddy! Dinosaur!” 

He looked at where she was pointing. “Ah, a peacock.” He fondly remembered being mesmerised by peacocks when he was Emma age. “It’s a bird like parrots are, it just looks different.” 

“No, it’s a dinosaur.” 

“Okay Em.” He tried to hide his laughter from the serious kid. “Shall we sit and watch them for a while?” 

“Yeah please.” David sat on the bench and she was sat beside him, Emma moved to sit on his lap instead, leaning against him as she watched the birds walk, hop, and fly around. 

  
  
  


* * *

 

 

 

Eventually David carried Emma out, he could tell she was starting to get tired but somehow was still wanting to move about, she really was a bundle of energy. He carried her over to an ice cream van and ordered them both a cone each, they settled onto the grass again and David pulled out his phone, he started a facetime with Mary, she quickly thanked him for saving her but she didn’t explain from what, he could tell that she wasn’t at her apartment right then though. Emma was clearly happy to talk to her mom, she was telling her all about the things that she and her daddy had done, about the birds, and the ‘dinosaur’, about the food they had eaten, and the ducks. It was clear how much fun she had been having. David was relieved that Mary looked proud and happy about that. Before the call finished Emma asked David if they can still play with the ball he brought, so Mary let them go, David reassured her that he would be bringing Emma back at 7.

  
  
  
  
  


* * *

 

 

 

Mary had been back home for half an hour when there was a knock at the door, she glanced at the clock which read five past seven, then rushed to the door. 

“Hey.” An easy smile was on David’s face as Mary opened the door, David was holding a half asleep Emma in his arms like a baby, in his other hand was the borrowed carseat. “She dropped off when I was driving over, she woke a little when when I was getting her out, I think she’ll fall asleep as soon as she’s in bed.”

Mary stood aside to let David and Emma in. She indicated for David to put the carseat down beside the door. And carefully took the toddler out of his arms. “Hey sweetie-pie.” she kissed Emma’s temple and could smell a scent which was extremely familiar. “I see you had a bath at daddy’s.” 

“We had spaghetti for dinner, and chocolate pudding… she kinda got both all over her.” David chuckled quietly, he had several pictures of that, mostly he was proud that she had really enjoyed the dish he had made. 

“Daddy needs bubbles.” Emma mumbled her eyes only half open. 

“I promise I’ll get some Emmy.” 

Mary could tell this was something David and Emma had already been talking about, knowing Emma all through bathtime. 

David fished out the messy clothes from Emma’s backpack, as well as Emma’s plush puppy and her blanket, he placed the latter two into his daughter’s arms. “Erm, washer?” 

“It’s over in the kitchen, just dump them in, I’ll start a wash off later. Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s put you to bed, huh, baby girl?”

“Daddy too.”

Mary smiled and kissed her forehead again. “Sure, baby, daddy will come put you to bed too.”

David grinned and walked over to follow Mary up the stairs. “She started calling me that earlier.” 

Mary turned her head back to see how proud and almost scared he looked. She knew that look, she had felt it every day for the past three years, all the sleepless nights, all the thankless days, all the shiny happy picture perfect moments, the fear about letting someone so perfect down. Their daughter was everything. “She’s pretty hard to please, she knows that you’re going to be an amazing dad, you already are.” 

“Thanks Mary, for today, for everything.” 

“It’s okay, Emma had a good time, I’m glad you got to spend some time together.” 

Both Mary and David were right, as soon as they led Emma in her bed and tucked the blankets around her, enough to keep her warm with the AC on, not too many to overheat her.  Mary and David both kissed her goodnight before heading downstairs. 

“Coffee?” Mary offered. 

David’s hand went to the back of his head, feeling his hair rise and fall back into place under his fingertips. “I probably shouldn’t, I think I’ll fall asleep pretty quickly, I didn’t realise that three year olds could be that tiring, I nearly had naptime myself when she had her one.” 

Mary laughed, she fidgeted with the empty coffee mug, she didn’t really want any herself, it was mostly just for something to do. “Yeah, I looked after my step brothers when they Emma’s age, it’s like she has three times the amount of energy they had, she tries her best but sometimes it gets her into trouble.” 

“She’s a good kid at heart… she’ll probably grow out of it… I think my mom had a handful with me and James, I think we were pretty like Emma.”

“Ah so you’re to blame!” Mary joked making him laugh. “How did your mom handle it?”

“She used to take us to the park a lot, we’d meet up with, Dora, she’s my stepmom now, she’d let us run around til we tired ourselves out. She was pretty much like you, how you handle our-our daughter, you’re an amazing mom to Emma.”

“Thanks, that honestly means a lot, more than you know.” She sighed gently. 

“I’m erm, telling my mom, my moms, tomorrow, and James and Ti too of course, I wanted to tell them sooner, but, well, this isn’t really something they should hear over the phone or through a text.” He looked down at his feet as they scuffed against the wooden floor. Mary’s hand went to his arm and gently squeeze, he looked up at her surprised at the contact. 

“Your moms will be made up, like you said earlier, and from what I can tell they’re going to be great grandmas to Emma. David, they’re not going to hate you, it’s not like, it’s not like you kept Emma from them, they’ll understand.” 

David was quiet for a minute. “They won’t hate you either, they’ll know you tried, we all know that if George had known about Emma…” He shook his head, he didn’t want to think about it. He looked at Mary’s eyes, the green with flecks of gold, they were mesmerising. “They’ll understand Mary, they’ll love you, when they meet you, they’ll want to, just to prepare you for that, they’ll love you: It would be impossible to hate you Mary Margaret Blanchard.”    
He felt an almost overwhelming urge to kiss her, her lips, they looked so soft, the memory of kissing her so long ago played in his mind, he wanted to kiss her again, to see if the kisses were as good as he remembered. He leant down, just a little closer, she tilted her head back to look at him-

He took a deep breath, so quick it was almost violent, he took a step back, nearly tripping over his own feet, he scrubbed his hair with his hand, forcefully, the pressure brought him back to reality, back to his responsibilities. “How’d it go with your step family?”

“Oh, yeah, erm.” Mary felt her cheeks tinge pink, “erm, just the usual Regina being Regina, she, she just worries about us, me and Emma, it drives me mad sometimes, even if it’s coming from a good place. Robin, Henry, and Roland are excited to meet you.” 

“And Regina…?” 

“Eh… she’s excited to interrogate you?” 

David let out a chuckle, he realised that he felt relief floor through him, he made the right decision not to kiss her, even if it still stung in his chest how much he wanted to. “It’s worth it, for Emma.” He realised he wasn’t really talking to Mary, but to himself. “My moms will probably invite you over too. Maybe with a little less interrogation. Hopefully anyway... My moms can be pretty scary.” 

Mary tried to hide her worried look, she felt guilty enough, seeing the grandmothers Emma didn’t know, the aunt and uncle, well, the guilt was only going to increase. “I was, I was talking to Regina today and she made me realise that coming up with a schedule, so we and Emma know where she is on what days and nights, it could be helpful.”

“You’re right, I’ve got to admit I’ve been thinking about that too, perhaps we could start it when I start at work, I’ll be working the day shift so I should be finishing when it’s time for Emma to be picked up, up ‘til then we can just,” he shrugged, “roll with it.” 

“That sounds good to me.” 

“I should, er, I should get going, unless you need anything?”

“I…” She trailed off. “No, I’m good. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, I was hoping to take and pick Emma up with you tomorrow? Before I have to go see my moms.”

“Yeah, Emma will love that, see you in the morning? Emma starts at quarter to nine but she’s up by like seven.” 

“I wonder if she’ll still be such a morning person when she’s a teen- oh god, she’d going to be a teen some day.” 

“Please don’t remind me.” They shared a slightly panicked look, as anyone who knew Emma would understand and share.

“I’ll be by about eight?”

“Sounds good.” 

“Good night, Mary Margaret, sleep tight.”

“Night Dave.” 

  
  
  
  


* * *

 

 

 

That night as she led in bed waiting for sleep to take her Mary received a text with several attachments. 

Mary led watching the videos and looking at the pictures of Emma at the park and playing and eating at David’s. She was staring at a selfie of David and Emma as she fell asleep.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think.   
> Feel free to message me on tumbr loboselinaistrash talking to me about whatever.  
> Also check out Justanoutlaw's fic Our Girl, it will make you cry (because she's mean but I still love her, and it's an amazing story and writing so it's worth it).


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